Autobiographical Reasoning Is Constitutive for Narrative Identity

Habermas, Tilmann; Köber, Christin

doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199936564.013.010

Cited by 64 publications

(74 citation statements)

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“…Consistent with past research in the US (Bauer et al 2008;Pals 2006), our findings show that redemption (as compared to contamination) predicts greater psychological well-being. Although the type of events people choose to narrate or the specific content of shared events may differ across cultures (Taiwanese and US college students; Wang 2006) our findings suggest that autobiographical reasoning that transforms a negative experience into an emotionally positive situation (i.e., redemption) may be a basic psychological mechanism of adaptation (Habermas and Köber 2015). The production of redemption sequences may be a socialcognitive tool for Taiwanese women in navigating conflicting values and life challenges as they enter adulthood and begin balancing multiple roles.…”

Section: Redemptive Versus Contaminative Self-defining Memoriesmentioning

confidence: 86%

“…This examines Taiwanese women's self-defining memories (Singer and Salovey 1993) of a turning point -a time when their sense of identity was challenged (Habermas and Köber 2015). In particular, we focus on redemption versus contamination in narratives because this interpretation sequence reflects a primary aspect of the constructed self that is related to adaptation (McAdams 2013).…”

Section: Narratives: Redemption Versus Contaminationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Given the current interest in predicting Taiwanese women's well-being, however, the focus here is on redemption versus contamination sequences. A recent review (Habermas and Köber 2015) indicates that positively-valenced narrative integration, such as redemption, is more likely to relate to wellbeing.…”

Section: Narratives: Redemption Versus Contaminationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The current study assessed Taiwanese women's narrative identity in terms of a self-defining memory at a turning point. This represents a core aspect of identity (Habermas and Köber 2015). Self-defining memories reflect an individual's enduring identity concerns (Conway et al 2004).…”

Section: Redemptive Versus Contaminative Self-defining Memoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Young Women in Today’s Taiwan: Relation of Identity Status and Redemptive Narration to Psychological Well-Being

2015

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The task of identity development is a process of balancing multiple values (Grotevant and Cooper 1998). For young women living in a society where values are in transition, such as Taiwan, this task may be particularly challenging. Forging their identity as an adult woman may have implications for their well-being. Adopting a mixed-method approach, the current study investigated two aspects of undergraduate Taiwanese women's identity development: identity status and narrative identity. The study assessed achieved and diffused identity status as well as redemption and contamination, two aspects of narrative identity, as independent predictors of women's psychological well-being. Eighty-five undergraduate women in Northern Taiwan (M age=19.92, SD= 1.58) completed the Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status. To assess aspects of narrative identity, they also provided a Self-Defining Memory narrative of a turning point in their lives. Specific interpretation sequences (i.e., redemption versus contamination) were reliably content-coded from the narratives. A Psychological Well-Being scale was also administered. As expected, results of hierarchical regressions show that having an achieved identity status (as found in US samples) predicts higher psychological well-being. Notably, however, showing redemption (i.e., as compared to contamination) in one's narrative also uniquely predicted higher psychological well-being. Sociocultural factors and psychological processes that are associated with Taiwanese women's identity development are discussed.

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Section: Redemptive Versus Contaminative Self-defining Memoriesmentioning

confidence: 86%

Section: Narratives: Redemption Versus Contaminationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Narratives: Redemption Versus Contaminationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Redemptive Versus Contaminative Self-defining Memoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Young Women in Today’s Taiwan: Relation of Identity Status and Redemptive Narration to Psychological Well-Being

2015

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“…In table 2 , we have listed the main autobiographical arguments and provided an example for each [cf. Habermas, 2011;Habermas & Köber, 2015b, for a more detailed account].…”

Section: Development Of Local Indicators Of Life Story Development: Amentioning

confidence: 99%

Getting a Life Takes Time: The Development of the Life Story in Adolescence, Its Precursors and Consequences

Habermas¹,

Reese²

2015

Human Development

114

136

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The life story is a special cognitive-communicative format which allows understanding persons from a biographical perspective through autobiographical reasoning and life narrating. Reviewing research on the development of the life story from the past 15 years, we clarify the conceptual and developmental specificity of the life story by comparing it to single event stories, and the specificity of autobiographical reasoning by comparing it to other forms of reasoning. To support the claim that the life story emerges only in adolescence, we review the earlier development of self and autobiographical remembering leading up to the life story. We outline the significance of autobiographical reasoning for bridging biographical ruptures, and we discuss the meaning of the cultural context for the development of the life story and its functionality. Finally, we suggest major developmental research questions that remain to be pursued.

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Coherence of child maltreatment narratives by emerging adults: How does child maltreatment affect how we share our story?

Fishere

Habermas

2023

Applied Cognitive Psychology

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Individuals narrate stories to explain how they became who they are, forming their own narrative identity. Highly disruptive experiences such as child maltreatment (CM) may be challenging to integrate into the life story and even to narrate coherently just by themselves. To test these potential effects, we divided a total of 171 students at an English‐speaking university in Egypt into two groups, those with a history of CM and those who experienced none. We compared narratives of four different types of emotional childhood experiences. Narratives of CM were no less coherent than narratives of most stressful childhood experiences in the control group, but were more integrated into the life story, which in turn predicted symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The present study contributes to the literature by confirming that there is no evidence for a lack of coherence among adults' CM narratives, and by highlighting the association between the centrality of the traumatic event in one's life and PTSD symptoms.

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Autobiographical Reasoning Is Constitutive for Narrative Identity

Cited by 64 publications

References 0 publications

Young Women in Today’s Taiwan: Relation of Identity Status and Redemptive Narration to Psychological Well-Being

Young Women in Today’s Taiwan: Relation of Identity Status and Redemptive Narration to Psychological Well-Being

Getting a Life Takes Time: The Development of the Life Story in Adolescence, Its Precursors and Consequences

Coherence of child maltreatment narratives by emerging adults: How does child maltreatment affect how we share our story?

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