How stable is the personal past? Stability of most important autobiographical memories and life narratives across eight years in a life span sample
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6202875 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Christin Camia (0000-0002-7553-2349), Christin Köber (Goethe University Frankfurt), Tilmann Habermas (0000-0002-3386-4767, Goethe University Frankfurt) |
| Year | 2017 |
| Volume | 113 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 608-626 |
| Publication date | 2017-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-3514 • E-ISSN: 1939-1315 |
| Publisher | American Psychological Association (APA) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1037/pspp0000145 |
| PMID | 28333472 |
| OpenAlex | W2602852491 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 28 |
| References cited | 35 |
Considering life stories as the most individual layer of personality (McAdams, 2013) implies that life stories, similar to personality traits, exhibit some stability throughout life. Although stability of personality traits has been extensively investigated, only little is known about the stability of life stories. We therefore tested the influence of age, of the proportion of normative age-graded life events, and of global text coherence on the stability of the most important memories and of brief entire life narratives as 2 representations of the life story. We also explored whether normative age-graded life events form more stable parts of life narratives. In a longitudinal life span study covering up to 3 measurements across 8 years and 6 age groups (N = 164) the stability of important memories and of entire life narratives was measured as the percentage of events and narrative segments which were repeated in later tellings. Stability increased between ages 8 and 24, leveling off in middle adulthood. Beyond age, stability of life narratives was also predicted by proportion of normative age-graded life events and by causal-motivational text coherence in younger participants. Memories of normative developmental and social transitional life events were more stable than other memories. Stability of segments of life narratives exceeded the stability of single most important memories. Findings are discussed in terms of cognitive, personality, and narrative psychology and point to research questions in each of these fields. (PsycINFO Database Record
Adult Development · Big Five personality traits · Developmental psychology · Life course approach · Life span · Literature · MEDLINE · Narrative · Normative · Personality · PsycINFO · Aging and Gerontology Research · Cognitive Abilities and Testing · Identity, Memory, and Therapy · Psychology · Social Psychology · Gerontology
Continuity and growth in the life story—or is it stagnation and flux
The repeated narration of specific events and identity stability in midlife
Stability and change in narrative identity
Retelling lives
Negotiating individual and social religious and worldview identities in consecutive autobiographical interviews on faith development
Assessing gender differences and well-being in birth narratives for students of historically black colleges and universities
Cultural differences in earliest memory reports by European and Chinese American university students born in the United States
Specific autobiographical memories are a resource for identity strength among mature but not emerging adults
Explaining change in content of life narratives over time
Properties of autobiographical memories are reliable and stable individual differences
Longitudinal consistency of self-reports of adverse childhood experiences among adolescents in a low-income setting
Parents' traces in life
Post‐traumatic growth as positive personality change
Consistency and stability of narrative coherence
Narrative Agency and Communion as Predictors of Trait and State Self‐Esteem Dynamics
The life story from age 26 to 32
Themes of trust, identity, intimacy, and generativity in important autobiographical memories
Individual differences in revising the life story—Personality and event characteristics influence change in the autobiographical meaning of life events
Changes in Children's Episodic Narratives Through Long‐Term Repeated Recall
What Is Real about “Real Time” Anyway? A Proposal for A Pluralistic Approach to Studying Identity Processes across Different Timescales
On the way to adult identity
Incorporating narrative identity into structural approaches to personality and psychopathology
Psychosis and the challenges to narrative identity and the good life
One-year stability in life story chapters and memories among emerging, middle-aged, and older adults
Trajectories of Youth's Helping From Adolescence into Adulthood
Understanding Personality Stability and Change From McAdams's Perspective
Agency and Communion in Brief Entire Life Narratives Across the Life Span
Finding one's Occupational Path - Identity Content in Repeated Narratives Across Early Adulthood
The Life Story Schema
The Self and Autobiographical Memory
The Psychological Self as Actor, Agent, and Author
The centrality of event scale
Selves Creating Stories Creating Selves
Autobiographical reasoning in life narratives buffers the effect of biographical disruptions on the sense of self-continuity
Cultural life scripts structure recall from autobiographical memory
Levels of processing
Fitting Linear Mixed-Effects Models Using lme4
The Autobiographical Author Through Time
Adults’ reports of their earliest memories
Developing a Life Story
Continuity and Change in the Life Story
The Present of the Past
Do People Know How Their Personality Has Changed? Correlates of Perceived and Actual Personality Change in Young Adulthood
Putting the Five‐Factor Model Into Context
Affective Scripts as Organizers of Personal Experience
Constructing Stories of Self-Growth
Traits and Stories
Autobiographical reasoning
Social Sharing of Emotion
Young Adults' Relationship Memories and the Life Story
Development of Temporal Macrostructure in Life Narratives Across the Lifespan
Momentous Events, Vivid Memories
Does intra-individual variability in narration matter and for what
Characterizing lifespan development of three aspects of coherence in life narratives
Predicting which childhood memories persist
Life story development in childhood
Life's little (and big) lessons
Stories of the young and the old
The development of global coherence in life narratives across adolescence
Narrating personality change
Personality development across the life span
Getting a life
The Self-Concept Over Time
| Unique citing works | 28 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3,5 |
| Citation span | 2018 - 2026 (9) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 24 |