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

Abstract

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.

Vicarious memory promotes successful adaptation and enriches the self.

“…At the same time, these studies have found positive correlations between the qualities of parental and personal life story chapters, consistent with the idea that they are intertwined. Importantly, these associations, for specific episodic stories and for life chapters and life stories, appear to be more robust for vicarious stories for mothers compared to more distant others, suggesting that they are dependent on the depth and quality of the interpersonal relationship (Merrill, 2023; Thomsen et al, 2021).…”

“…The emotional quality of VM focusing on parents’ lives also predicts successful functioning. Individuals who describe extended life chapters in their parents’ life stories with a more positive affective tone and with more positive meaning-making tend to report higher well-being (Thomsen et al, 2021; Thomsen & Vedel, 2019). At the same time, these studies have found positive correlations between the qualities of parental and personal life story chapters, consistent with the idea that they are intertwined.…”

Does Narrating the Life Story Predict Changes in Personality Traits and Characteristics?

“…More recent research has focused on changes in personality states due to narrating one's life story. For example, participants of the life story interview were found to experience increases in state self-esteem after writing about their life chapters (Steiner et al, 2019;Thomsen et al, 2021) and increases in positive affect immediately after an interview (Turner et al, 2021). A possible mechanisms could be the increased self-knowledge and sense of identity (e.g., Alea, 2018).…”

“…We used two distinct indices of personality change-mean-level change and rank-order stability-to examine change in personality traits and characteristics in response to life-story narration. Moreover, given that most previous studies tested effects on personality traits or characteristics immediately after the interview or on a state level (Steiner et al, 2019;Thomsen et al, 2021;Turner et al, 2021), we will test both short-term (i.e., across 1 year) and long-term (i.e., 3 years) effects.…”

“…To examine such transient effects, designs with smaller intervals or using discontinuous growth models could be a way to understand how the effects of life story narration unfold over shorter periods of time (e.g., Denissen et al, 2019;Hopwood et al, 2022). In addition, changes in personality states rather than changes in traits might be better apt to capture the effect of participating in a life story interview (e.g., Steiner et al, 2018;Thomsen et al, 2021;Turner et al, 2021). Thus, the present findings highlight that being a participant in a life story interview is different from being a client in narrative therapy, at least in terms of the resulting long-term effects on changes in traits and characteristics.…”