Life Story Chapters: Past and Future, You and Me

COVID-19 memories young adults may share: exploring event properties and motivations for transmission

The COVID-19 pandemic has left an enduring mark on human history. This study investigates the intergenerational transmission of COVID-19 memories through a unique approach involving 49 participants aged 18-30. Specifically, participants were prompted to share a COVID-19 memory they would choose to transmit to their future children. Furthermore, participants provided reasons for selecting that particular memory, utilising a memory functions scale and open-ended responses. Applying Transition Theory, we examined the transitional impact, event importance, previous rehearsal, and valence of reported memories. Results revealed that 88% of memories revolve around distinctive events inducing psychological and material changes. Perceived as significant, negative, and transitional, these memories are predominantly public in nature. Predictors of event importance include previous rehearsal and psychological change. Participants share memories primarily for directive purposes, intending to inform future generations. The results imply that transitions not only organise personal memories but may also direct and shape memories for public events.

Former dementia caregivers' high and low point narratives: what is remembered, and how is it shared?

OBJECTIVES

To characterize core themes conveyed by caregivers when sharing narratives of high and low caregiving points and to describe how caregivers structured these narratives.

METHODS

Using consensual qualitative research and thematic analysis, high and low point narratives from 32 former caregivers of persons living with dementia were examined.

RESULTS

High point narrative themes involved strengthening relationships with care partners, fulfillment derived from care, lighthearted moments, and fostering the care partners' joy and dignity. Low point narratives involved family conflict and lack of support, personal deficiencies, loss of the caregivers' 'pre-caregiving' life, health system failures, and alienation from their care partner. Across high and low points, caregivers' narratives were structured by three types of narrative elaborations; details unnecessary for factual recall but which enriched narrative sharing.

CONCLUSION

Themes across high and low point narratives encompassed relational issues, how caregiving shaped the caregiver's self-efficacy, and factors that made navigating caregiving easier or more difficult. Both high point and low point narration often involved describing positive aspects of caregiving (PAC). Narrative elaborations may be used by former caregivers to engage in deeper evaluation of their caregiving experiences. We consider how psychotherapeutic techniques can help former caregivers reframe maladaptive narratives, supporting their mental health.

Event Time Perspective in Adaptation to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Preliminary Insights from Two Chinese Samples

Little is known about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the way people construct their time perspective (TP). This study investigated past and future TP in Hubei, China, comparing a ‘pre-pandemic’ sample collected before the pandemic (late 2019, n = 138) to a ‘habitual-pandemic’ sample collected when the pandemic was largely under control (beginning 2021, n = 109). Using the time line paradigm, participants generated significant past and future personal events indicating dates, emotional valence, and intensity for each. We used these data to test the predictions that the COVID-19 pandemic would shorten TP and evoke pessimism for the future and disappointment for the past. Counter to these predictions, we found: (a) typical levels of positivity in both samples for both past and future events; (b) a higher proportion of positive memories in the habitual-pandemic sample than pre-pandemic one; (c) past and future time extension in the habitual-pandemic sample; and (d) the future was more often completed with one’s own ‘peaceful death’ in the habitual-pandemic sample. To determine whether the ‘peaceful death’ phenomenon is adaptive or maladaptive we examined its coincidence with other timeline characteristics. The analyses indicated that the ‘peaceful death’ phenomenon in both samples was associated with a moderately positive TP and a plurality of prospects with frequent references to travel. These results allow to propose that an elongated TP and a distant ‘peaceful death’ may buffer pandemic-related uncertainty and that an accelerated TP functions in the service of self-continuity and well-being.

Everyday heroes: Graphical life stories and self-defining memories in COVID-19 medical volunteers

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to explore the autobiographical foundations of specific narrative identities, which made it possible to choose medical volunteering in the time of the pandemic, resist highly hazardous conditions of working in COVID-19 "red zones," and emerge from this work with a sense of meaning and optimism.

METHOD

In this study, we focused on the graphical life stories, self-defining memories (SDMs), and self-defining future projections (SDFPs) of four individuals who worked at COVID-19 "red zone" hospitals as medical volunteers.

RESULTS

The analysis revealed that all participants incorporated their volunteering experiences as meaningful and satisfying into their general narrative identity. They scored high on standard scales assessing subjective well-being and reported autonomous regulation of volunteer motivation. We identified narrative trunk lines and metaphors across autobiographical data, which differentiated the participants into four types of general identities extensively manifesting in volunteering identity: faith-based, influence-based, help-based, and success-based. The participants' graphical life stories, SDMs, and SDFPs showed similar patterns consisting of adult-oriented childhood, focus on mid-life events, and a redemption sequence in narration.

CONCLUSION

These findings could be taken as touchstones to highlight the critical value of self-continuity and sense of purpose in active coping with global challenges.

Patterns of Quality of Life and Perceived Satisfaction in Adults and Elderly in Spain: Daily Practices, Life Experiences and Psychological Profiles

A study was carried out with the purpose of determining the day-to-day practices, positive and stressful life experiences, and psychological profiles that underpin different perceptions of quality of life and perceived satisfaction. A total of 1095 adults and elderly people from Spain participated in the study. An online instrument designed using the tool Google Forms was administered to them. Descriptive and multivariate analysis was performed using the general linear model (GLM). Three types of finding were obtained. First, we identified everyday practices that promote perceived quality of life and perceived satisfaction. Second, we established the relationship between certain positive and stressful life experiences, their consequences, and different perceptions of quality of life and perceived satisfaction. Finally, we identified the distinguishing psychological profiles associated with these constructs. The results obtained here can contribute to the development of more successful psychological and social interventions. They reveal a set of indicators that, based on empirical evidence, should be part of any intervention design.

A story to tell: the role of narratives in reducing delay discounting for people who strongly discount the future

Delay Discounting (DD) or devaluing a future, larger reward in favour of a smaller, more immediate reward, has been linked to negative health behaviours. One intervention that reduces DD is Episodic Future Thinking (EFT). EFT has participants generate cues representing positive future events that correspond to temporal windows during the DD task. The current study examined if incorporating EFT cues into narratives would strengthen effects on DD. One hundred and sixty adults were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk and were randomised to traditional or narrative EFT. Results showed that participants in narrative EFT discounted the future less (p = 0.034) than participants who engaged in traditional EFT. This novel approach to EFT is well grounded in research and theory on the power of narratives to influence behaviour and can open a new window into ways to reduce DD to strengthen engagement in positive choices.

Storying the Past and the Future: Agency and Communion Themes Among Individuals With Schizophrenia and Depression

ABSTRACT

Research has linked disturbances in narrative identity with schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders. One such disturbance is diminished agency and communion themes in past life stories. However, projecting oneself into the future is also central to identity and potentially impacts recovery. Hence, we examined themes of agency and communion in both past and future life stories and related themes to psychosocial functioning in 20 individuals with schizophrenia, 20 individuals with depressive disorder, and 19 nonpsychiatric controls. Participants were asked to describe up to 10 past and future chapters in their life stories and were assessed on psychosocial functioning and neurocognition. Chapters were coded for agency and communion themes. Both clinical groups displayed diminished agency and communion themes in past but not future life story chapters compared with the nonpsychiatric controls. Furthermore, agency themes in future chapters explained variance in psychosocial functioning after controlling for neurocognition. The results suggest that constructing a narrative identity to foster agency and communion in both past and future chapters may be an important part of recovering from schizophrenia and depression.

The Development of Identity Fusion

The fusion of personal and group identities can lead to self-sacrificial progroup behavior, from acts of charity to violent extremism. Two pathways to identity fusion-via shared biology and shared experiences-have been proposed. In this article, we elucidate a new developmental account of the origins and mechanisms of these two pathways to identity fusion from childhood to adulthood. Whereas fusion based on shared biology occurs from early childhood cued by phenotypic similarity, fusion based on episodic memories of shared experiences is not possible until midadolescence and relies on suitable bonding experiences (e.g., painful initiation rituals, emotionally intense team sports). The critical development that enables fusion based on shared experiences is autobiographical reasoning, which entails connecting one's past experiences to the present self. Autobiographical reasoning begins in adolescence, which may explain the flourishing of fusion in late adolescence and young adulthood relative to other life periods. Fusion via either pathway is linked to strong progroup behavior. We outline a program of empirical research on the development of identity fusion while addressing relevant methodological challenges. A developmental framework may help foster efforts to harness identity fusion for peaceful rather than violent forms of self-sacrifice for the group.

Narrative Identity in Psychopathology: A Negative Past and a Bright but Foreshortened Future

We examined narrative identity as a possible transdiagnostic marker of psychopathology by interviewing individuals with schizophrenia, individuals with depression and a nonclinical control group about past and future chapters in their life stories. Participants were 20 patients with schizophrenia, 20 patients with depression, and 20 nonclinical control participants matched on age, gender, and education. Participants described up to 10 chapters in their past and future life stories and self-rated chapters on emotional tone and self-event connections. In addition, cognitive function and current levels of symptoms was assessed. Both patient groups self-rated their past chapters as more negative and less positive compared to the control group, but did not differ from each other. There were no group differences in positivity of future chapters, but both patient groups identified fewer future chapters with shorter temporal projections. The results are consistent with the notion that negative past aspects of narrative identity are a transdiagnostic marker of psychopathology, while also suggesting that individuals with mental illness construct a positive future, which may support hope.

Factors that modulate the intergenerational transmission of autobiographical memory from older to younger generations

The present study examined the intergenerational factors in transmitting autobiographical memories from one generation to the next. Older adults from Beijing, China reported a collection of personally important autobiographical memories and their middle-aged children recalled important parental memories. The parent-child dyads independently recalled and provided ratings of mnemonic characteristics for the memories. Across generations, consensus memories, which refer to the memories that both parents and children considered as important in the parent's life, were characterised by the substantial material change that the events brought about in their lives. While parent-child interaction affected the number of events passed onto children, it only affected the number of script-divergent events that were not recorded in the life script of a culture, but not the number of script-consistent events. In addition, children whose parents were rusticated and relocated to rural areas during the Cultural Revolution remembered more historical memories than children whose parents were not rusticated. The findings shed light on the process that one generation gains the biographical knowledge and historical experience of a prior generation. Theoretical implications are discussed.

Exploring underexposed stories: the experienced lifecourse of financially excluded older adults

To gain insights into vulnerable lifecourses and give a voice to those often underrepresented in quantitative research, this study examines the life stories (past, present and future) of 19 financially excluded older adults using an adapted version of McAdams’ life-story interview scheme. Although these life stories demonstrate an accumulation of many disadvantages and an uncertain future because of current financial situations, the stories also reflect the generativity, resilience, coping strategies and agency of financially excluded older adults. We demonstrate how the experienced lifecourse is built around both negative and positive turning points and transitions which go beyond the classical education–work–retirement triumvirate, and how socio-cultural life scripts are used as a framework to build one's own life story in order to achieve continuity. The discussion highlights the potential for deploying the life-story method as a qualitative resource for providing individualised care.

Impact of Life Experiences and Use of Web 2.0 Tools in Adults and Older Adults

The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between favorable and stressful life experiences and perceived quality of life, practices that promote quality of life, psychological profiles, and the daily use of web 2.0 tools in adults and older adults. An online questionnaire was designed, which was administered to 1,095 Spanish adults and older adults, and conducted descriptive and multivariate analyses using the general linear model. Our results showed that favorable and stressful life experiences alike were associated with differential patterns in psychological profiles, perceived quality of life and daily activities and practices that affect quality of life, including the use of web 2.0 tools. Favorable life experiences mainly affected psychological profiles and the use of web 2.0 tools, whereas stressful life experiences affected the other factors analyzed. Statistically significant differences were not found according to age and gender. These findings have important implications for promoting successful psychological and social interventions.

Functions of personal and vicarious life stories: identity and empathy

The present study investigates functions of personal and vicarious life stories focusing on identity and empathy. Two-hundred-and-forty Danish high school students completed two life story questionnaires: one for their personal life story and one for a close other's life story. In both questionnaires, they identified up to 10 chapters and self-rated the chapters on valence and valence of causal connections. In addition, they completed measures of identity disturbance and empathy. More positive personal life stories were related to lower identity disturbance and higher empathy. Vicarious life stories showed a similar pattern with respect to identity but surprisingly were unrelated to empathy. In addition, we found positive correlations between personal and vicarious life stories for number of chapters, chapter valence, and valence of causal connections. The study indicates that both personal and vicarious life stories may contribute to identity.

Later adults' cultural life scripts of middle and later adulthood

The cultural life script (CLS) refers to expected prototypical life events, often including life transitions overwhelmingly occurring at ages 11-30. This study outlined CLS events at ages after the majority of these events typically occur. Participants, age 38-76, nominated events they expected a person of their age to experience in the future. Participants rated each event's valence, importance, prevalence, and expected age of occurrence. Events were coded into three categories: the normative CLS for events listed by previous CLS studies, offspring's CLS for experiencing CLS events of offspring, and later adulthood CLS for other events nominated by at least 4% of participants. Results suggest scripted events highlighting positivity and change. Offspring's CLS was more positive and occurred earlier than others. Correlations emerged between event characteristics and well-being. Results affirm the prominence of transitions in memory, and suggest ways that older adults maintain well-being despite a cultural narrative that emphasizes decline.