scholarly journals Authoring esteem: Writing about vicarious and personal life story chapters boosts state self-esteem

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorthe Kirkegaard Thomsen ◽  
Stefan Pfattheicher ◽  
William L. Dunlop

Constructing personal life stories carries benefits for psychological adjustment. We examined whether writing about the life stories of parents (i.e., vicarious life stories) hold similar advantages. In Study 1, we adapted an established experimental paradigm to an online format. Participants wrote either about personal life story chapters or about famous persons (control condition) and completed pre- and post-measures of state self-esteem. We found the predicted interaction as self-esteem increased in the chapter but not in the control condition. In Studies 2 and 3, we added the critical condition of writing about vicarious chapters. Study 2 did not find the predicted interaction. Instead, all three conditions increased in self-esteem. Study 3, which used a new neutral control task (writing about historical events), showed that the two chapter conditions, but not the control condition, increased in self-esteem. This suggests that authoring life stories for both oneself and close others momentarily boosts self-esteem.

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Joshua E. Olsberg

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] This dissertation compares the life stories of Cubans in Miami, Florida and Baracoa, Cuba to explore how Cubans in different cultural spaces define their communities and sense of belonging. The study finds that collective memory and public narratives in those communities are shaped by political and historical events, and that elements of the community's broader history become part of our personal life stories.


Author(s):  
Michael W. Pratt ◽  
M. Kyle Matsuba

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.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tracy Chippendale

The purpose of this study was to pilot an enhanced version of the “Share your Life Story” life review writing workshop. The enhanced version included the addition of an intergenerational exchange, based on the content of seniors’ writings, with students planning careers in the health sciences. The researcher employed a mixed methods design. Preliminary results using descriptive analysis revealed an increase in positive images of aging and a decrease in negative images of aging among the five student participants. Qualitative results revealed six themes that illuminate the hows and whys of the quantitative results as well as additional program benefits. Feedback from students and seniors helped to refine the intergenerational protocol for a larger scale study.


Kuntoutus ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 36-48
Author(s):  
Johanna Vilppola ◽  
Markku Vanttaja

Mielenterveyssyistä johtuvat sairauspoissaolot ja työkyvyttömyyseläkkeet ovat lisääntyneet Suomessa viime vuosikymmeninä. Sen vuoksi on tarpeen tutkia mielenterveyskuntoutujien yksilöllisiä elämäntilanteita sekä heidän kuntoutumistaan ja kiinnittymistään yhteiskuntaan. Tässä artikkelissa tarkastellaan mielenterveyskuntoutujien kuntoutusprosessia erityisesti koulutus- ja työtoimijuuden näkökulmasta. Tutkimusaineistona käytetään aikuisten mielenterveyskuntoutujien kirjoittamia elämänkerrontoja (n = 42). Elämänkerrontojen teema-analyysin ja tyypittelyn perusteella kirjoittajat jaettiin kolmeen erilaiseen ryhmään, jotka nimettiin toimijoiksi (9), taistelijoiksi (18) ja tipahtaneiksi (15). Toimijat olivat aktiivisia oman kuntoutumisensa, koulutuksensa, työnsä sekä kokonaiselämänsä suhteen. Heillä oli vahva pyrkimys hakeutua koulutukseen, palata takaisin työelämään tai ylläpitää nykyinen koulutus- ja työtilanteensa. Taistelijat olivat puolestaan omassa kuntoutusprosessissaan matkalaisia, jotka halusivat olla yhteiskunnan tarpeellisia jäseniä. Myös heillä oli koulutukseen ja työhön liittyviä haaveita, mutta keinot oman elämän hallitsemiseksi olivat toisten ihmisten tuen varassa. Tipahtaneet olivat luovuttaneet sekä oman kuntoutumisensa että koulutus- ja työtoimijuutensa suhteen. Heillä ei ollut enää koulutukseen tai työhön liittyviä tavoitteita. Abstract Mentally wounded. Research of Education and Work Agency of Mental Health Rehabilitees Mental health related sick leaves and early pensions have increased enormously in our society in the last decades. That is why it is important to study the life narratives of mental health rehabilitees, especially focusing on individual and societal factors connected to rehabilitation, education and work agency. The data of this research consisted of 42 self-written life stories of adult mental health rehabilitees. Based on theme analysis and typification, life stories were divided into three groups: agentic actors (9), warriors (18) and dropouts (15). Agentic actors were described as active agents of their own rehabilitation, education, work and life. They had strong intentions to participate in education and work. Warriors seemed to be more like passengers in their own rehabilitation process, yet they had intentions to be a necessary part of society. They had hopes and dreams towards education and work, but they seemed to be lacking concrete means to lead their independent lives.  The dropouts had given up on their agency in rehabilitation, education and work. They had no more goals or intentions concerning education and work. Keywords: mental health rehabilitation, life story, education, work, agency


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 117-177
Author(s):  
Marina Salman

This article results from extensive archival research, and compares information found in Tenishev school magazines to the archival data concerning the school life of the corresponding period. The article’s major goal is to reconstruct life stories of Tenishev school students and the school’s instructors as meticulously as possible, and also to demonstrate the style of communication between the teachers and adolescents. It also reveals some previously unknown information concerning the life story of Tenishev School director Alexander Ostrogorskii (1868—1908). KEYWORDS: 20th-Century Russian History, Osip Mandel’shtam (1891—1938), Viktor Zhirmunskii (1891—1971), Alexander Ostrogorskii (1868—1908), Tenishev School, School Magazines, Soviet Terror, History of School Education in Russia.


2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1-2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Roden ◽  
Christoph Bergmann
Keyword(s):  

From the introduction:This article represents our first attempt in exploring life stories by bringing the subtle details of one such story into dialogue with a broader scholarly concept, namely that of ‘system viability’ (Mistry et al. 2010; Berardi et al. 2013). The concept provides a generalised framework through which one can evaluate a system’s ability to survive, stay healthy, and prosper.


2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 242-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. C. C. (Carla) van Os ◽  
A. E. (Elianne) Zijlstra ◽  
E. J. (Erik) Knorth ◽  
W. J. (Wendy) Post ◽  
M. E. (Margrite) Kalverboer

The systematic review presented in this article aims to reveal what supports and hampers refugee children in telling their, often traumatic, life stories. This is important to ensure that migration decisions are based on reliable information about the children’s needs for protection. A systematic review was conducted in academic journals, collecting all available scientific knowledge about the disclosure of life stories by refugee minors in the context of social work, guardianship, foster care, asylum procedures, mental health assessment, and therapeutic settings. The resulting 39 studies were thoroughly reviewed with reference to what factors aided or hampered the refugee children’s disclosure of their life stories. The main barriers to disclosure were feelings of mistrust and self-protection from the side of the child and disrespect from the side of the host community. The facilitators for disclosing life stories were a positive and respectful attitude of the interviewer, taking time to build trust, using nonverbal methods, providing agency to the children, and involving trained interpreters. Social workers, mentors, and guardians should have time to build trust and to help a young refugee in revealing the life story before the minor is heard by the migration authorities. The lack of knowledge on how refugee children can be helped to disclose their experiences is a great concern because the decision in the migration procedure is based on the story the child is able to disclose.


Author(s):  
Derek A. Hutchinson ◽  
M. Shaun Murphy

Drawing on a broader narrative inquiry into the curriculum making of participants who compose identities dissonant with dominant stories of gender and sexuality, this article explores the shaping influence of the social (relationships, communities, and contexts) in one participant's life story around sexuality from a curricular perspective. The term curriculum making represents an ongoing process through which individuals make sense and meaning of experience, position curriculum broadly as a course of life, and shift notions of curriculum and curriculum making beyond the bounds of school. Individuals engage in identity making as they make sense of themselves in relation to their curriculum making, narratively understood as the composition of stories to live by. This inquiry highlights the ways that life stories are composed alongside, connected to, and shaped by other people and draws the attention of educators to the complex lives unfolding in schools.


Author(s):  
Jack Bauer

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?


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document