Narrative identity

The theory of narrative identity postulates that individuals form an identity by integrating their life experiences into an internalized, evolving story of the self that provides the individual with a sense of unity and purpose in life. This life narrative integrates one’s reconstructed past, perceived present, and imagined future. Furthermore, this narrative is a story - it has characters, episodes, imagery, a setting, plots, themes, and often follows the traditional model of a story, having a beginning (initiating event), middle (an attempt and a consequence), and an end (denouement). Narrative identity is the focus of interdisciplinary research, with deep roots in psychology.

In recent decades, a proliferation of psychological research on narrative identity has provided a strong empirical basis for the construct, cutting across the field, including personality psychology social psychology, developmental and life-span psychology, cognitive psychology, cultural psychology, and clinical and counseling psychology.

Development of a child’s narrative identity is largely influenced by the opportunities for narrative expression he or she has through conversations with caregivers and friends. Speakers provide more accurate autobiographical information when speaking to attentive listeners as opposed to distracted listeners, therefore developing more specific autobiographical memories which give rise to richer personal narratives. Young children whose parents share more detailed personal narratives from their own lives tend to have more detailed and coherent personal narratives themselves by the end of the preschool age period. The ability to construct narratives in a life story framework and form an identity first emerges in adolescence - initiated during the adolescent struggle for identity formation, It plays a role in adulthood by supporting generativity, and it helps to foster meaning-making at the end of life.

The development of life story narratives in adolescence is facilitated by co-constructed reminiscing, in which caregivers use discussion, comparison, and analysis of inner motivation to guide reflection about past events and create narratives that explain situations and behavior. This helps adolescents develop an understanding of the relationship between the “self” of the past and their personal narrative in the present. An interesting finding from adolescent research shows more semantic stories increase and become more meaningful in a child's life. When a child, especially a boy, makes stronger semantic connections in early adolescence, he has a worse sense of well-being, but as he moves to late adolescence his well-being increases. the large jump in cognitive learning during adolescence allows this change to take place. Since this is a very important time for children to expand their social groups and conversational constructs, more semantic narratives can be created and allow the meaning making construct to develop.

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