Personal Narrative Revealing Self and Reflecting Other

The telling of personal narratives is one form of presenting self to others that begins early in life and crosses racial, ethnic, and cultural boundaries. Not only do we present ourselves through narrative, those with whom we are involved present us to others through narrative. The purpose of this study was to examine how well one's perception of self is communicated to familiar others. One hundred targets each brought a perceiver to the experiment. The target and perceiver were separated and given a series of questionnaires to complete. The target and the perceiver were then asked to tell a personal narrative about the target. Findings include the following: (a) Self-concept is presented through personal narrative, (b) such self-presentations function as impression management, (c) view of other is presented through narrative, and (d) narrative presentation of a familiar other reflects the familiar other's self-concept.