scholarly journals The Last Chapters of Life: A Proposed Research Agenda for Studying Narrative Identity in Older Adulthood

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hollen N. Reischer
Keyword(s):  
Life Span ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Narrative Identity ◽  
Life Stories ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Master Narrative ◽  
Older Adulthood ◽  
Adult Personality ◽  
Midlife Adults ◽  
Narrative Framework

The study of narrative identity—the ongoing process of authoring our life stories and being shaped by them—has provided a rich conceptualization of adult personality, yielding important insights about the storied nature of meaning-making in personality, particularly for young and midlife adults. However, little research has been done to investigate narrative identity in older adulthood, potentially resulting in a constrained understanding of narrative identity across the life span. I propose that much-needed research on narrative identity in late life could substantiate or undermine a hypothesized shift in emphasis from authoring to reading life stories (McAdams, 2015), complicate and refine the master narrative framework (McLean & Syed, 2015), and offer new targets for narrative identity questions across the entire life span.

scholarly journals The potential of transformative video design for improving caregiver’s wellbeing

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 205510292110090
Author(s):  
Milica Petrovic ◽  
Andrea Gaggioli
Keyword(s):  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Narrative Identity ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Informal Caregivers ◽  
The Self ◽  
Design Technique ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Role Transformation

The existing interventions for informal caregivers assist with managing health outcomes of the role burden. However, the deeper meaning-making needs of informal caregivers have been generally neglected. This paper reflects on the meaning-making needs of informal caregivers, through the theory of narrative identity, and proposes a new approach – the Transformative Video Design technique delivered via video storytelling. Transformative Video Design assists informal caregivers to re-create a cohesive caregiving story and incorporate it into the narrative identity. The technique is used as a stimulus for triggering the self-re-structure within the narrative identity and facilitating role transformation.

scholarly journals Metodologiska val i studien av biografiskt material - metodologiska val och deras epistemologiska konsekvenser i studien av biografiskt material

2006 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 53-69
Author(s):  
Vanessa May
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Life Stories ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Story Telling ◽  
Lone Mothers ◽  
The Creation

Epistemological Questions Concerning the Study of Biographical. Material: The Consequences of Choise of Methodology Using my own research on written life stories of Finnish lone mothers as a case study, this paper examines the consequences of choice of methodology when using biographical material as data. I focus on two methodo-logical alternatives: analysing biographical material as documents of preceding events, or as meaning-making con-structs. Treating biographical material as a gateway into studying events in people’s lives reduces the heuristic value of the material, and consequently questions of truth and reliability become problematic. Nevertheless, this still seems to be the preferred methodological alternative of many sociologists. If biographical material is analysed for its own sake, focussing on the creation of meaning through story-telling, the above-mentioned problems of truth and reliability diminish considerably. Using research on lone motherhood as an example, I ex-plore arguments for the use of narrative analysis, examining what it has to offer methodologically, theoreti-cally and conceptually.

The Transformative Self

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Bauer
Keyword(s):  
Personal Growth ◽  
Good Life ◽  
Narrative Identity ◽  
Life Stories ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Cultural Beliefs ◽  
Dark Side ◽  
The Good Life ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Literature History

Everyone wants a good life. Some try to create a good life by cultivating personal growth. They have a transformative self. This book explains how people form a transformative self, primarily in their evolving life stories, to help cultivate growth toward a life of happiness, love, and wisdom for the self and others. It introduces an innovative framework of values and personhood to strengthen and integrate three main areas of study: narrative identity, the good life, and personal growth. The result is a unique model of humane growth and human flourishing. Each chapter builds on that framework to explore topics central to the transformative self, such as how cultural beliefs of a good life shape our narrative identity; how narrative thinking shapes cultural and personal beliefs of a good life; how cultural master narratives shape our ideals for personal growth; how growth differs from gain, recovery, and other positive changes in the life story; how happiness, love, wisdom, and growth serve as superordinate goods in life; how the hard and soft margins of society thwart and facilitate personal growth; the dark side of growth; and the lengthy development of authenticity and self-actualizing. This book synthesizes scholarship from scientific research across several subfields of psychology to philosophy, literature, history, and cultural studies. It offers a creative and scientifically grounded framework for exploring three of life’s perennial questions: How do we make sense of our lives? What is a good life? and How do we create one?

Story and Identity

2020 ◽  
pp. 151-181
Author(s):  
Karen E. Shackleford ◽  
Cynthia Vinney
Keyword(s):  
Identity Construction ◽  
Personal Identity ◽  
Narrative Identity ◽  
Life Stories ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Values And Beliefs ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
The Way

This chapter explores the way fictional stories impact personal identity. It discusses how identity develops with a particular focus on adolescence. Then, it sheds light on how fiction contributes to identity construction as teens gain insight into things like careers, relationships, values, and beliefs through stories and how these insights can impact their choices for their futures. The chapter also looks at the way people’s emotional investments in their favorite stories can cause them to become extensions of themselves and how this may lead them to use these stories as symbols of who they are. Finally, it explores the topic of narrative identity—the internalized, constantly evolving life story each person tells of himself or herself—and how fiction influences and becomes incorporated into people’s life stories.

Transformative Self-Regulation and the Quiet Ego

2021 ◽  
pp. 263-285
Author(s):  
Jack Bauer
Keyword(s):  
Life Stories ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Process Models ◽  
Dual Process ◽  
Dual Processes ◽  
Quiet Ego ◽  
Self Development ◽  
Over Time

This chapter examines how the transformative self facilitates long-term self-regulation. Most research on self-regulation targets the immediate moment (referred to here as micro self-regulation) or personal events that last weeks or months (meso self-regulation). In contrast, the transformative self functions as a tool for macro self-regulation in one’s attempt to shape one’s life over time (for which evolving life stories are especially well suited). Hedonic, transformative self-regulation comes in the forms of realistic optimism, self-improvement motivation, cybernetic feedback motives, intentional self-development, and the flexible pursuit of goals. Eudaimonic, transformative self-regulation is especially helpful for adaptation to life’s difficulties and is found in dual-process models of adaptation to loss and potential trauma. These dual processes aim to regulate and balance both affect and meaning-making. The quiet ego represents a synthesis of these forms of self-regulation, balancing detached awareness (e.g., mindfulness), inclusive identity (e.g., interdependence, compassion), perspective-taking (e.g., value perspectivity), and growth-mindedness.

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.

Narrative reconstruction and post-traumatic growth among trauma survivors: The importance of narrative in social work research and practice

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 166-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah L Jirek
Keyword(s):  
Life Stories ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Personal Narratives ◽  
Traumatic Experience ◽  
Trauma Survivors ◽  
Life Narrative ◽  
Reconstruction Process ◽  
Post Traumatic Growth ◽  
Narrative Reconstruction ◽  
Post Traumatic

A substantial body of theoretical work on meaning-making processes postulates that assisting clients in reconstructing their personal narratives in the aftermath of trauma helps survivors to integrate the traumatic experience into their identities and life stories. However, the relationship between trauma survivors’ (re-)construction of a coherent life narrative and their development of post-traumatic growth (PTG) has rarely been explored. In this study, I conducted life story interviews with 46 university students with trauma histories to examine: (1) How, and to what degree, trauma survivors (re-)construct a coherent life narrative; and (2) If and how this process is connected to the development of PTG. I found that survivors who were able to articulate a coherent story about their lives experienced more PTG, and I identified key characteristics of three stages of post-trauma change. I also found that trauma-related therapy, writing, informal conversations, and self-reflection played important roles in the narrative reconstruction process. I argue that some narratives are easier to reconstruct than others because not all narratives are equally valued in society. The presence or absence of narratives in the discursive environment, the reception these stories receive within society, and the access that individuals have to these narratives are influenced by the historical moment, social norms, politics, power, privilege, and individuals’ social locations. To promote empowerment and social justice, social workers should help trauma survivors to reconstruct their life stories, create spaces for the less-welcomed narratives, and engage in mezzo- and macro-level efforts to address social problems and inequalities.

Older people with incurable cancer: Existential meaning-making from a life-span perspective

2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sigrid Helene Kjørven Haug ◽  
Lars J. Danbolt ◽  
Kari Kvigne ◽  
Valerie DeMarinis
Keyword(s):  
Palliative Care ◽  
Older People ◽  
Life Span ◽  
Daily Living ◽  
Developmental Psychology ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Adaptive Strategies ◽  
Growth Potential ◽  
Incurable Cancer ◽  
Existential Meaning

ABSTRACTObjective:An increasing number of older people in Western countries are living with incurable cancer, receiving palliative care from specialized healthcare contexts. The aim of our article was to understand how they experience the existential meaning-making function in daily living from a life-span perspective.Method:Some 21 participants (12 men and 9 women), aged 70–88, were interviewed in a semistructured framework. They were recruited from somatic hospitals in southeastern Norway. We applied the model of selective optimization with compensation (SOC) from life-span developmental psychology in a deductive manner to explore the participants' life-oriented adaptive strategies. A meaning component was added to the SOC model.Results:The participants experienced the existential meaning-making function on two levels. On a superordinate level, it was an important component for interpreting and coordinating the adaptive strategies of SOC for reaching the most important goals in daily living. The existential meaning-making framework provided for a comprehensive understanding of resilience, allowing for both restoration and growth components to be identified. The second level was related to strategy, in that the existential meaning-making function was involved in a complex interaction with behavioral resources and resilience, leading to continuation of goals and more realistic goal adjustments. A few experienced existential meaning-making dysfunction.Significance of results:The modified SOC model was seen as applicable for palliative care in specialized healthcare contexts. Employing the existential meaning-making framework with its complementary understanding of resilience as growth potential to the SOC model's restoration potential can help older people to identify how they make meaning and how this influences their adaptation process to being incurably sick.

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