Love as story, love as storytelling

Abstract

Across three studies, individual differences in the degree to which (a) participants enjoyed autobiographical storytelling with their romantic partners (storytelling enjoyment [SE]) and (b) thought about these relationships in narrative terms (narrative mindset [NM]) were examined in relation to psychological functioning and romantic relationship narratives. Drawing data from over 1,650 participants, relationship satisfaction, certain positive personality traits, and a dimension of secure attachment corresponded with both SE and NM. SE and NM also related to features of participants' relationship narratives. Storytelling and applying a NM to one's love life may carry implications for functioning within the romantic domain.

The relationship between the reminiscence of relationship‐defining memories and marital outcomes: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

“…We, therefore, performed two meta-analyses to calculate an overall effect size of the mentioned relationships. As the study by Dunlop (2019) comprised three distinct studies, and the other included studies examined the aforementioned relationship in two or even three different times for women and men, we had 33 entries in our meta-analysis. Pearson's r was the extracted index to consider the relationship between the mentioned variables.…”

“…There have been a number of attempts to date in a number of different fields to define and explore the interrelation of RDMs and marital outcomes. Since 1980, a diverse array of researchers have investigated the impact of RDMs on marital outcomes, using miscellaneous terminologies such as autobiographical memories (e.g., Alea & Bluck, 2007;Alea & Vick, 2010;Holmberg et al, 2018;Vick & Alea, 2008), reminiscence about shared laughter and positive memories (e.g., Bazzini et al, 2007;Osgarby & Halford, 2013), couple-related episodic memories (e.g., Guilbault & Philippe, 2017;Philippe et al, 2013), relationship narratives (McCoy et al, 2017), relational history narratives based on oral history interview (OHI) (e.g., Buehlman et al, 1992;Carrère et al, 2000;Doohan et al, 2010), couples' we-stories (Gildersleeve et al, 2017), relationship nostalgia (Mallory et al, 2018), joint storytelling (e.g., Dunlop, 2019;Koenig Kellas et al, 2010), and savoring, wherein one of the subscales refers to couples' reminiscence of joint memories. Despite the use of divergent terminologies, all of these studies pursued the same purpose: to understand the potential ways in which RDMs can predict the quality, success, and/or failure of intimate relationships.…”

Narrative identity’s nomological network: Expanding and organizing assessment of the storied self

“…Evident from the information presented in Table 1, there are a small number of questionnaires that have been designed for this purpose. For example, in the Awareness of Narrative Identity Questionnaire (ANIQ; Hallford & Mellor, 2017), participants are prompted to rate a number of items tapping their beliefs regarding the 'awareness' of narrative (e.g., "My memories are like stories that help me understand my identity") whereas the Love and Story and Storytelling questionnaire (LASS; Dunlop, 2019) contains a scale that may be used to assess perceptions regarding the degree to which respondents view their romantic relationships as if they were stories (e.g., "I often think about my romantic relationship as if it were a story, complete with characters and a plot"). This measure can be easily adapted to other relationships and domains (e.g., one's professional life/career) and life more broadly.…”

The Redemptive Story from the Perspective of Challenge and Resolution, Self and Situation, and Stability and Change: Considering the Model, the Method, and the Possibility of Maturation

“…First, when things in a romantic relationship become difficult or challenging, the ability to anticipate and ultimately form a redemptive story regarding these challenges may carry certain benefit. Second, disclosing a redemptive personal story to a potential partner may aid relationship formation and quality (see also, Dunlop, 2019).…”