Lecture 5 - Narrative Identity

Question 1

What do trait approaches argue about personality?

Answer 1

• E.g. Eysenck’s PEN model, Gray’s RST model, Costa and McCrae’s (1992) Five Factor Model
• Argue personality is manifest across a few core traits (break down personality into building blocks which differentiate us between individuals)
• Why do we need other levels to explain personality?

Question 2

What is narrative identity?

Answer 2

• Narrative identity is the third and the broadest level of personality outlined by McAdams (1996)
• Narrative identity is a level of personality that captures how an individual defines themselves through the social construction of a coherent and purposeful life story (who you are and how you got there)

Question 3

What are some critiques of trait theories?

Answer 3

• “But as an integrative framework for studying persons, the Big Five may not be comprehensive enough, for it makes the whole of personality to be synonymous with traits.” (McAdams, 1996, p.296)
• Traits are an important element of personality but don’t explain everything
• Traits don’t tell you how adults explain their individuality e.g. why they’re extraverted
• Traits aren’t grounded in a cultural or sociohistorical context

Question 4

What assumptions is McAdam’s integrative/three level theory based on?

Answer 4

o Selfhood is not given, it is made – evolve/shaped by experiences
o The self develops over time
o People seek temporal coherence in their self

Question 5

What is McAdam’s integrative theory of personality?

Answer 5

• Draws on evidence from trait theories and social-cognitive theories in personality to propose (learn more about people as you go up the levels):
• Level 1 (actor) – traits (e.g. FFM)
• Level 2 (agent) – personal concerns or characteristic adaptations (what we want to achieve/avoid)
• Level 3 (author) – narrative identity

Question 6

What is level 1 (traits)?

Answer 6

• FFM = ‘OCEAN’
• Dispositional signatures of personality – born with/shaped by environment
• Decontextualised – (fairly) stable across lifespan and situations (in reality there will be within-person variation)

Question 7

What is level 2 (personal concerns)?

Answer 7

• Personal concerns also called characteristic adaptations
• This is a very long list – motives, values, goals, beliefs, skills, coping styles etc.
• It draws upon many areas of psychology where there are individual differences between people
• Involves focus on motivation, self-development, and strategies or skills
• Contextualised within a specific time, place and/or role

Question 8

What is an example of personal concerns?

Answer 8

• Evidence is drawn from other areas in psychology (e.g. Schwartz, 2012 Theory of Basic Values)
• Differences in value-orientation which cluster together e.g. if more open to change, less on conservation

Question 9

Why are personal concerns not the whole picture?

Answer 9

• They do not present a unified identity of the person across time, place and role
• They do not provide us with a sense of what the life experiences mean to the person

Question 10

What is level 3 (narrative identity)?

Answer 10

• McAdams and McLean (2013)
• The life story that is constructed from autobiographical memory
• An evolving, integrative account which provides temporal coherence and meaning
• Answer to ‘Who Am I?’ question

Question 11

How do McAdam’s (1996) personality levels interact?

Answer 11

• McAdams (1996) proposed distinct levels of personality, but the levels are not entirely independent
• Developmental trajectory:
  o People are born with a temperament (traits) >
  o Shapes their goals (personal concerns) >
  o Shapes their environments >
  o Shapes their life stories (narrative identity)
• Little empirical work examining interrelationships between three levels of personality

Question 12

How have interactions between levels been examined?

Answer 12

• McAdams (1996) proposed that temperament (traits) influences goals, and goals influence narrative identity
• Buhler et al. (2021) found some support in a 2-wave longitudinal study in adulthood, but relationships between levels were bidirectional (in relation to agency):
  o Level 1 (traits) predicted subsequent level 2 (goals)
  o Level 2 (goals) did not predict subsequent level 3 (narratives)
  o Level 2 (goals) and level 3 (narratives) predicted level 1 (traits)

Question 13

How may narrative be a mechanism for change?

Answer 13

• Further support for bidirectional relationships between personality levels comes from theorising on how people change after experiencing adversity:
• “Such future changes in traits or characteristic adaptions are often imminent in life narratives, when people describe future goals or future selves as part of their narrative identity that connects the past to the future (Lodi-Smith et al., 2009)”
• Adversity/change in proprieties may change traits
• Weststrate et al. (2022): Advancing a three-tier personality framework for growth

Question 14

How is narrative identity measured with the Life Story Interview (LSI)?

Answer 14

• The LSI is a method used to collect data on narrative identity
• It positions the participant as a storyteller:
  o In-depth qualitative interview, normally 2-3 hours
  o Person divided their life story into distinct chapters
  o Person describes key (important) scenes, characters and plots, and significance of the event(s) in each chapter

Question 15

What is the written (abbreviated) life story?

Answer 15

• The life story interview is a labour-intensive method
• Researchers sometimes collect written narratives of key life scenes using similar instructions to the interviews
• Narratives do not assess the truth of event(s), rather it is individual differences in the interpretation of event(s) that is important (want meaningful events that shaped personality)
• There is often not a constraint on the retrospective time frame for narrative recall, rather a focus on subjectively meaningful scenes

Question 16

What is de-contextualised narrative identity?

Answer 16

• To capture (stable) individual differences in narrative style, researchers will average a construct (e.g. redemption) across all life scenes
• This is viewed as a relatively de-contextualized approach averaging across different life domains (Dunlop, 2015)

Question 17

How is the LSI coded?

Answer 17

• Each life story is unique, but researchers can code for common dimensions and examine how these narrative dimensions relate to variables of interest (McAdams & McLean, 2013) e.g.:
  o Agency – control over our lives
  o Communion – quality of relationships
  o Redemption – finding positive from a negative event
  o Contamination – positive/neutral event turns bad
  o Meaning making – lesson/insight narrator learns from an event
  o Self-event connections – perceived direct connection between self and event (positive or negative)

Question 18

Why is inter-rater reliability important for the LSI?

Answer 18

• Narrative identity researchers code qualitative data for the purpose of statistical analyses (mixed method research)
• Agreement and consistency in the interpretation of the narrative data is important:
  o (1) Defined coding schemas (e.g. what is high/low agency)
  o (2) Training with example narratives
  o (3) Multiple coders, often blind to study hypotheses
  o (4) Inter-rater reliability statistics to examine the consistency and agreement across coders

Question 19

What is the structure of narrative identity?

Answer 19

• McLean et al. (2020) conducted an empirical investigation into the underlying domains and structural organization of narrative identity constructs
• Autobiographical reasoning = meaning-making
• Structure = coherence of the story i.e. can you follow the story
• Affective and motivational = overall emotional tone/ending of story and what motivates the individual e.g. agency, redemption, contamination

Question 20

What is contextualised narrative identity?

Answer 20

• Instead of generalising across all domains, a contextualized approach involves averaging constructs across specific life domains (e.g. love or work)
• The processes involved in identity formation may vary in different life domains (Dunlop, 2015)
• This approach only collects narratives from relevant life domains for the context under study (e.g. academic and romantic narratives for college adjustment – just asked about high and low points in these contexts) (Lilgendahl & McLean, 2020)

Question 21

What is the importance of narrative identity?

Answer 21

• Narrative identity is not just a bunch of random stories
• For narrative identity to be a level of personality, then it should predict important life outcomes
• Researchers have often focused on health and well-being outcomes
• Narrative identity -> unity, purpose and meaning -> well-being

Question 22

What did McAdams et al. (2001) find about redemption in narrative identity?

Answer 22

• 2 samples in different life stages
  o 74 mid-life adults – completed LSI
  o 125 UG students – written LSI for 10 life scenes
• Researchers coded for redemption and contamination in life scenes
• Participants also answered questionnaires on their current well-being
• Midlife sample = higher redemption had higher satisfaction with life and lower depression. Reverse seen for contamination (lower satisfaction with life and higher depression)
• Similar pattern for UG – higher redemption correlated with greater satisfaction with life and higher psychological well-being
• Issue with correlation – direction (concurrent) - is narrative identity changing how people narrate to be more satisfied or are people who are already happy/satisfied more likely to tell redemptive stories?

Question 23

How did Adler et al. (2015) investigate narrative identity and mental health?

Answer 23

• Alder et al. (2015) used a longitudinal study design
• They asked: are individual differences in narrative identity associated with well-being over time (i.e. predict future well-being)?
• 89 late-mid-life participants were samples from a study that included the Life Story Interview who had narrated a ‘personal health challenge’ (people working through the meaning of events which may affect well-being)
• Mental and physical health were assessed 5 times (once a year for 4 years post-baseline)

Question 24

What was the procedure of Adler et al. (2015) study 1?

Answer 24

o 4 life scenes were selected: high point, low point, personal health challenge, and turning point
o Each life scene coded for: agency, communion, redemption, contamination
o Do individual differences in narrative identity predict change in mental and physical health over 4 years?

Question 25

What did Adler et al. (2015) study 1 find when averaging across all 4 life scenes?

Answer 25

Agency = positive trajectory for MH, no significant association to PH Communion = no significant relationship to MH or PH Redemption = positive trajectory for MH, no significant association to PH Contamination = negative trajectory to MH, no significant association to PH How we narrate life doesn't impact physical health but does impact mental health

Question 26

According to Adler et al. (2015), do individual differences in narration of different scenes predict change in MH and PH over 4 years?

Answer 26

Agency and redemption when narrating health challenge and low point had a positive effect on MH and no effect on PH Contamination when narrating health challenge had a negative relationship to MH and no relationship to PH. Contamination when narrating low point had a negative effect on both MH and PH There was no relationship with high/turning points - narrative identity influence on well-being may be restricted to reflection-inducing events

Question 27

What did Alder et al. (2015) investigate in study 2?

Answer 27

o Do the findings still hold in a prospective investigation after a negative health experience? o 54 participants drawn from an existing longitudinal study: o 27 people – major illness diagnosis between baseline and wave 2 o 27 ‘matched’ people – remained healthy for the study duration o Participants completed the abbreviated life story interview and the same 4 themes were coded as in study 1

Question 28

What were the results for Adler et al. (2015) study 2?

Answer 28

o Results for the illness group = poorer trajectories of physical (but not mental) health over 2 years in illness group compared to control group. Results consistent with previous when controlling for PH trajectory over time - agency, communion and redemption had a positive effect on MH and contamination had a negative effect o Results for the control (no illness) group = no significant changes in physical or mental health over time (with exception of contamination)

Question 29

How did Dunlop and Tracy (2013) study 2 investigate narrative identity and behaviour?

Answer 29

- Dunlop and Tracy (2013) study 2: does a redemptive narrative precede behavioural change in recovering alcoholics (sober for or less than 6 months)? - Not much research on individual differences in narrative identity and behaviour - 44 participants who were recovering from alcoholism - In wave 1, a narrative about their last drink and questionnaires on health, personality, months of sobriety were collected - In wave 2 at 4 months after wave 1, participants were re-administered the same questionnaires (not narrative identity measure). 4 months is most likely relapse period - Participants divided into redemption narrative (n=12) and non-redemption narrative (n=32) groups

Question 30

What did Dunlop and Tracy (2013) find about narrative identity and behaviour?

Answer 30

- Redemption significantly predicted sobriety (83% vs. 44% still sober at 4 months – statistically meaningful difference) - The health of participants in the redemption group also significantly improved from wave 1 to wave 2 - These results held when controlling for personality, mental health, AA involvement and some specific narrative features (emotionality)

Question 31

How did Adler (2012) investigate agency in narrative identity?

Answer 31

- Adler (2012) examined changes in narrative identity in 47 individuals across 12-weeks of psychotherapy (people who were looking for change and working through narratives) - Narrative account of the therapeutic process – before and after each of the 12 sessions - Agency and coherence (ability to tell a narrative which makes sense) were coded - Mental health questionnaires assessed before and after 12 sessions

Question 32

What did Adler (2012) find about agency in narrative identity?

Answer 32

- Adler (2012) found evidence for changes in narrative identity over 12 weeks of psychotherapy: o Agency increased over 12 weeks o No evidence of changes in narrative coherence - The increases in narrative agency were significantly and positively associated with increases in mental health over subsequent sessions (called lagged associations) - Trait neuroticism decreased over sessions and was associated with increases in mental health over time, but narrative agency remained a significant predictor when they controlled for changes in trait neuroticism

Question 33

What is incremental validity in narrative identity?

Answer 33

Do individual differences in narrative identity predict well-being outcomes when we account for dispositional traits and other individual differences?

Question 34

How did Adler et al. (2016) investigate incremental validity in narrative identity?

Answer 34

- Adler et al. (2016) reviewed the research on narrative identity predicting well-being: - They reviewed 30 papers from a literature review that had data on this question (with both correlational and longitudinal designs) - They selected studies that examined this question while controlling for other individual differences

Question 35

What did Adler et al. (2016) find about the incremental validity in narrative identity?

Answer 35

- Adler et al. (2016) concluded that when controlling for other individual differences (including personality traits) there was: - Strong evidence that affective or motivational constructs (e.g. contamination, redemption etc.) predicted well-being - Strong evidence that integrative meaning constructs (e.g. self-event connections, autobiographical reasoning etc.) predicted well-being - Little data available to assess the relationship between structural constructs and well-being

Question 36

How is incremental validity in narrative identity also supported by two studies previously covered?

Answer 36

- Adler (2012) found that trait neuroticism decreased across 12-weeks of psychotherapy, and this predicted mental health. Yet, narrative agency remained a significant predictor of mental health, even when neuroticism was included - Dunlop & Tracy (2013) found redemption predicted sobriety behavior across 4-months even when controlling for trait optimism, trait positive and negative affect (emotions) and dispositional attribution tendencies about controllability