Being Brave, Being Nice
Themes of Agency and Communion in Children’s Narratives
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19282103 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Richard Ely (Boston University), Gigliana Melzi (0000-0003-4920-2095, Boston University), Luke Hadge (Boston University), Allyssa Mccabe (0000-0002-4889-4010, University of Massachusetts Lowell) |
| Year | 1998 |
| Volume | 66 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 257-284 |
| Publication date | 1998-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Personality (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-3506 • E-ISSN: 1467-6494 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/1467-6494.00012 |
| OpenAlex | W1750167356 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 13 |
Although much is known about the presence of themes of agency and communion in adults’ autobiographical stories, little is known about the presence of these themes in children’s autobiographical stories. In this paper we examine the extent to which children describe themselves and others as agentic and communal beings in ordinary conversational narratives. Subjects were 96 rural, working‐class children between the ages of 4 and 9 years. Personal narratives were elicited in the course of informal conversations with an adult experimenter. Narratives were analyzed for the presence of storyworld participants, and for the presence of themes of agency and communion. For both genders, themes of agency were more common than were themes of communion. Girls, however, were more likely to describe themes of communion than were boys, and were more likely to include family members in their narratives than were boys. Finally, correlations between themes of agency and communion were generally low. The findings extend the age to which the concepts of agency and communion can be productively applied to personal narratives. Implications for future theoretical and empirical work are also discussed
Agency (philosophy) · Developmental psychology · Literature · Narrative · Sense of agency · Social science · Sociology · Digital Storytelling and Education · Early Childhood Education and Development · Educator Training and Historical Pedagogy · Gender Studies · Psychology · Social Psychology
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| Unique citing works | 13 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,45 |
| Citation span | 1997 - 2023 (27) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 13 |