I Know My Story and I Know Your Story: Developing a Conceptual Framework for Vicarious Life Stories

Vicarious life stories are mental representations of other people's life stories. We propose a conceptual framework that situates the study of vicarious life stories at the crossroads between personality and social cognition, identifies their potential functions, and describes possible connections between vicarious and personal life stories. Two preliminary studies compared chapters and specific memories in personal and close others' life stories in two groups of student participants. Ages associated with chapters and specific memories in personal and vicarious life stories showed similar temporal distributions. Emotion ratings of both personal and vicarious life story chapters were related to personality traits and self‐esteem, although relations were more consistent for personal chapters. In conclusion, personal and vicarious life stories share important similarities. Mental models of other people include vicarious life stories that serve to expand the self as well as facilitate understanding of others.     

Life story chapters and narrative self-continuity in patients with schizophrenia

The present study compared life story chapters and self-defining memories in 25 patients with schizophrenia and 25 matched controls. All participants were tested on neurocognition and rated on symptoms. Participants identified and rated life story chapters and self-defining memories on emotional valence, causal coherence, and self-continuity. Temporal coherence and temporal macrostructure were also assessed. Patients rated their life story chapters as more negative compared to controls, but there were few significant differences regarding temporal coherence, temporal macrostructure, and ratings of causal coherence and self-continuity. In patients, poorer neurocognitive function and higher degree of negative symptoms were related to less causal coherence and lower self-continuity in relation to chapters. In general, few differences were found between the patients and the controls. This may be due to the highly structured method used to assess life stories or to the fact that our patient group was cognitively well-functioning.     

One-year stability in life story chapters and memories among emerging,middle-aged,and older adults

We examined 1-year stability of life story chapters and memories. In addition, we examined age differences in stability. At baseline and 1 year later, 70 emerging, 60 middle-aged, and 59 older participants described up to 10 chapters and 10 memories (in counterbalanced order). Participants self-rated chapters/memories on emotional tone, self-change connections, and self-stability connections. Chapters/memories were content coded for stability between time 1 and 2 and for emotional tone. Chapters were significantly more stable than memories. However, there were no significant differences between chapters and memories regarding stability of associated emotional tone, self-change connections, and self-stability connections. We found few age differences in stability. The results suggest that chapters may play a central role in the stability of narrative identity.     

Abstracting and extracting: Causal coherence and the development of the life story

This study compared life story memories of emerging adults and early adolescents to other autobiographical memories. Participants described three scenes of their respective life stories, a high point, low point, and turning point narrative, and described the connections between them in a fourth narrative. Participants also related four autobiographical narratives from corresponding time periods for comparison. Narratives were analysed for two measures of causal coherence, narrative complexity and meaning making, and for thematic coherence. Life story narratives contained more self-related lessons and insights and greater recognition of complexity than non-life-story narratives, but these differences were confined to narratives of turning points and connections between events. Thematic connections between narratives were more abstract and self-related in life story narratives. Emerging adults' narratives, when compared to those of early adolescents, showed more evidence of self-related abstract thinking and recognition of multiple dimensions. Findings indicate consistent ways in which life story memories differ from other autobiographic memories, and show evidence of development in adolescence.     

What happened in kindergarten? Mother-child conversations about life story chapters

ABSTRACT

Research indicates that adults form life story chapters, representations of extended time periods that include people, places and activities. Life chapter memories are distinct from episodic memories and have implications for behaviour, self and mental health, yet little is known about their development during childhood. Two exploratory studies examined parent–child conversations about life chapters. In Study 1, mothers recorded naturalistic conversations with their 5–6 year old children about two chapters in the child’s life. In Study 2, mothers recorded conversations with their 6–7 year old children about a particular life chapter—the child’s kindergarten year—and also about a specific episode of their choice. The results indicated that young children are able to recall and discuss information about life chapters and that parents actively scaffold children’s discussion of general information in chapters as well as specific events. Mothers’ conversational style when discussing chapters (e.g., elaborativeness) predicted children’s memory contributions, and was also positively correlated with their style when discussing specific events. The results suggest new avenues for research on the ontogeny of life chapters, the factors that shape them, and their role in development.     

Life Story Chapters,Specific Memories,and Conceptions of the Self

Two studies investigated the effects of recalling either life story chapters or specific memories on measures of self‐continuity and self‐esteem. Participants were assigned to recall important chapters, important specific memories, or impersonal facts, and they provided ratings of emotional tone. Participants also completed trait and state measures of self‐continuity, self‐esteem, and mood. Although effects of recall condition on state and trait measures were not statistically significant, within‐group analyses identified strong and consistent relationships between the positivity of life story chapters and both trait and state self‐continuity and self‐esteem. In contrast, the positivity of specific memories was related only to state self‐esteem. Qualities of life story chapters appear to be more central to enduring conceptions of the self than do qualities of specific life story memories.Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The long‐term impact of emotionally stressful events on memory characteristics and life story

The characteristics and organization of memories from World War II (WWII) were examined in relation to posttraumatic stress reactions. In Study 1, 145 Danes recalled and rated four memories from WWII. They rated the WWII period for posttraumatic stress reactions and importance to identity and life story. Memory clarity, rehearsal and consequences correlated positively with posttraumatic stress reactions and with WWII importance to identity and life story. In Study 2, a subgroup of 58 participants nominated five life story memories, divided their life story into chapters and rated WWII for posttraumatic stress reactions and importance to identity and life story. Posttraumatic stress reactions correlated positively with percentage of life story chapters about WWII, the tendency to connect non‐WWII memories with the WWII period and subjective clarity and rehearsal of WWII memories. The results contradict the idea that posttraumatic stress reactions are associated with vague and poorly integrated trauma memories. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

Forks in the Road: Memories of Turning Points and Transitions

Turning points and transitions are both life events marked by significant change. Whereas turning points are personal changes in life direction, transitions are external changes in daily circumstances. Transition‐linked turning points are events that fit both of these definitions. Although transitions and turning points have been examined separately, the current study is the first empirical comparison of these types of events and their overlap. Differences in the characteristics of adults' autobiographical memories of turning points, transitions, and transition‐linked turning points were compared using a within‐subjects design. Memories of transition‐linked turning points and turning points were more central to participants' life stories than transitions, whereas memories of transitions had more similarities in content, particularly location, with related memories. These results suggest that transitions organize autobiographical memory whereas turning points anchor the life story. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A 3.5 year diary study: Remembering and life story importance are predicted by different event characteristics

Forty-five participants described and rated two events each week during their first term at university. After 3.5 years, we examined whether event characteristics rated in the diary predicted remembering, reliving, and life story importance at the follow-up. In addition, we examined whether ratings of life story importance were consistent across a three year interval. Approximately 60% of events were remembered, but only 20% of these were considered above medium importance to life stories. Higher unusualness, rehearsal, and planning predicted whether an event was remembered 3.5 years later. Higher goal-relevance, importance, emotional intensity, and planning predicted life story importance 3.5 years later. There was a moderate correlation between life story importance rated three months after the diary and rated at the 3.5 year follow-up. The results suggest that autobiographical memory and life stories are governed by different mechanisms and that life story memories are characterized by some degree of stability.     

The Life Story Schema

Current work on autobiographical memory does not take the term autobiographical seriously enough. Doing so requires taking not just single events, but the whole life and its coherence, into account: Only memories that are linked to self through their emotional or motivational significance over one's life are truly autobiographical. We introduce a new construct, the life story schema, a skeletal mental representation of life's major components and links. The life story schema provides 5 conceptual extensions to current models of autobiographical memory. The conclusion that results from these extensions is that the life story schema serves to bind autobiographical memory and the self over time. Research needed to substantiate our claims and further questions generated by the life story schema construct are discussed.     

Sharing memories and telling stories: American and Chinese mothers and their 3-year-olds

American and Chinese mothers were asked to talk with their 3-year-old children at home about two shared past events and a story (41 mother-child dyads). Results revealed between-culture variation in the content and style of mother-child conversations when sharing memories and telling stories. American mothers and children showed a high-elaborative, independently oriented conversational style in which they co-constructed their memories and stories by elaborating on each other's responses and focusing on the child's personal predilections and opinions. In contrast, Chinese Mother-child dyads employed a low-elaborative, interdependently oriented conversational style where mothers frequently posed and repeated factual questions and showed great concern with moral rules and behavioural standards with their children. Findings suggest that children's early social-linguistic environments shape autobiographical remembering and contribute to cultural differences in the age and content of earliest childhood memories.     

Repressive coping and the recall of emotional material

Abstract

Individuals who possess a repressive coping style are known to have difficulty in retrieving negative autobiographical memories. We investigated whether these findings were specific to autobiographical memories. After learning a story containing positive and negative information about mothers and fathers, repressors remembered significantly fewer negative phrases than did controls, although there were no differences in the recall of positive material.     

Odour-induced mental time travel into the past and future: Do odour cues retain a unique link to our distant past?

Proustian memories, or memories spontaneously evoked by taste and odours, have been argued to be uniquely linked to our remote past. This view suggests an asymmetry between odour-cued memories and odour-cued representations of future events regarding their temporal distance to the present. We investigated the temporal distribution and other phenomenological qualities of autobiographical memories and future events employing a 2 (temporal direction: past vs future)×3 (cue type: verbal, visual, and odour) mixed design. We found that while odour-evoked memories were predominantly from the first decade of life, the future condition showed a marked preponderance of odour-cued events in the upcoming year. Odour-evoked memories were also less specific than the verbal and visual conditions. The odour condition was responsible for interactions concerning coherency of the events and the events’ significance to the life story. The results support the view that odours possess a unique ability to evoke remote autobiographical memories.     

Age differences in life stories and neuroticism mediate age differences in subjective well-being

We examined whether age differences in life stories and personality traits mediated age differences in subjective well-being. One hundred one young, 77 middle-aged, and 81 older participants completed measures of subjective well-being and personality traits. They described chapters and specific memories in their life stories and rated these on emotional tone and positive and negative self-event connections. Older participants scored higher on subjective well-being, rated their life stories as more positive, and scored lower on neuroticism compared with both young and middle-aged participants. Age differences in subjective well-being were mediated by life stories and neuroticism, with neuroticism being the strongest mediator. We suggest that changes in personality may enable older individuals to interpret events and themselves in a positive light, which help enhance their subjective well-being.