processes of identity development: where i am and how i...

This article was downloaded by: [Kate C. McLean]On: 14 February 2012, At: 08:25Publisher: Psychology PressInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH,UK

Identity: An InternationalJournal of Theory andResearchPublication details, including instructions forauthors and subscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/hidn20

Processes of IdentityDevelopment: Where I Am andHow I Got ThereKate C. McLean a & Monisha Pasupathi ba Western Washington Universityb University of Utah

Available online: 14 Feb 2012

To cite this article: Kate C. McLean & Monisha Pasupathi (2012): Processes of IdentityDevelopment: Where I Am and How I Got There, Identity: An International Journal ofTheory and Research, 12:1, 8-28

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15283488.2011.632363

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes.Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan,sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone isexpressly forbidden.

The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make anyrepresentation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up todate. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae, and drug doses should beindependently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable

http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/hidn20

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15283488.2011.632363

http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand, or costs or damageswhatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connectionwith or arising out of the use of this material.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Kat

e C

. McL

ean]

at 0

8:25

14

Febr

uary

201

2

Processes of Identity Development:Where I Am and How I Got There

Kate C. McLeanWestern Washington University

Monisha PasupathiUniversity of Utah

Erikson’s seminal work on identity development focused on the question, WhoAm I? Despite theoretical overlap between identity theorists, current researchhas primarily taken different paths. Those focused on identity statuses haveprimarily assessed current conceptions of exploration that presumably leadto future commitments. In contrast, narrative identity theorists have primarilyfocused on reconstructions of past events. Thus, current researchers are nottaking advantage of the strengths of these two approaches. This article reviewsresearch and examines ways in which the approaches might be integrated withtwo claims. The authors propose, first, that narrative is the means by whichidentity exploration can be carried out, and second, that narrative processingreflects commitments and can promote greater consistency between thosecommitments and behaviors.

Erikson’s life span theory of psychosocial development places a specialemphasis on a primary developmental task of adolescence and young adult-hood—that of answering the question, Who Am I? Erikson viewed thetransition between childhood and adolescence as one in which adolescentsbegin to take ownership of their lives by selecting commitments consistentwith how they conceptualize their current and past selves (Erikson, 1959;see also Schwartz, 2001). In this article, we delineate two different empirical

Address correspondence to Kate C. McLean, Department of Psychology, Western

Washington University, MS 9172, 516 High Street, Bellingham, WA 98225, USA. E-mail: Kate.

[email protected]

Identity: An International Journal of Theory

and Research, 12:8–28, 2012

Copyright # Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

ISSN: 1528-3488 print=1532-706X online

DOI: 10.1080/15283488.2011.632363

8

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Kat

e C

. McL

ean]

at 0

8:25

14

Febr

uary

201

2

routes for answering the question of Who Am I?—one focused on capturingsnapshots of presumed developmental processes and one focused on captur-ing processes—and how these two approaches might be integrated to garnera fuller understanding of identity development.

Erikson (1968) believed that, with advanced cognitive abilities (e.g., for-mal operations) and a new awareness of one’s environment and relation-ships, opportunities for shifts in perspectives and beliefs arise, resulting inpotential feelings of vulnerability. The alteration or transformation ofbeliefs and perspectives challenges identity in the philosophical sense sincesuch alterations can mean that the person whose beliefs have changed hasbecome a different person altogether (Chandler, Lalonde, Sokol, & Hallett,2003). Erikson (1959) believed that changes in perspective and beliefscoupled with felt vulnerability set the stage for identity exploration:

The period can be viewed as a psychosocial moratorium during which the indi-vidual, through free role experimentation, may find a niche in some section ofhis society . . . . In finding it the young adult gains an assured sense of innercontinuity and social sameness which will bridge what he was as a child andwhat he is about to become. (p. 111)

The end point of this adolescent and young adult stage for Erikson (1968)was identity synthesis, in which one establishes coherence between one’sbehaviors and one’s commitments. Identity synthesis manifests whenbehaviors are predictable across contexts and are based on one’s currentcommitments—or a sense of self-sameness and continuity:

The adolescent process is conclusively complete only when the individual hassubordinated his childhood identifications to a new kind of identifica-tion . . . these new identifications . . . force the young individual into choicesand decisions which will, with increasing immediacy, lead to commitments‘‘for life.’’ (p. 155)

This quotation nicely exemplifies a link between commitments that allowcontinuity between the past, present, and future, a continuity that wascentral to Erikson’s reasoning. It also refers explicitly to the idea that thecontinuity achieved via identity development is a process that unfolds overtime. However, empirical work in the area has revolved around two tradi-tions that either focus primarily on snapshots indicating where someone isin that process or that focus primarily on processes relevant to identityconstruction without the structure that the snapshot approaches canprovide. We provide a brief review of the two approaches and somepossibilities for integrating these views of identity development.

PROCESSES OF IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT 9

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Kat

e C

. McL

ean]

at 0

8:25

14

Febr

uary

201

2

EXPLORATION AND COMMITMENT: THE STATUS APPROACH

Marcia (1966) developed an empirical assessment of Erikson’s theoryfocused on the future or ‘‘a sense of knowing where one is going’’ (Erikson,1959, p. 118). Marcia conceptualized this process as having two compo-nents—exploration and commitment. Exploration is defined as examiningdifferent identity alternatives to which one might commit, and commitmentis defined as having assumed an identity—including ideologies and roles indifferent domains. Four statuses can be derived from the combinations ofexploration and commitment, with the most advanced being identityachievement—those who have explored their potential ideological optionsand have subsequently chosen ideologies. Those who have not yet reachedcommitment and are still exploring are in the moratorium status, whereasthose who commit to ideals without a process of exploration are in foreclos-ure. Finally, those who have neither explored nor committed, and aretherefore not engaged in the process of identity formation, are in diffusion.

Although some have viewed Marcia’s statuses as trait-like constructsbecause there are distinct relationships between statuses and personalityprofiles (e.g., Cote & Levine, 1988; Meeus, Iedema, Helson, & Vollebergh,1999; Stephen, Fraser, & Marcia, 1992), he actually intended for them tobe viewed as a snapshot of an individual at one moment in time (Marcia,2001). There has been much empirical and theoretical work addressing theissue of continuity and change in identity statuses to address this issue ofwhether they are indeed snapshots of developmental processes or indicativeof some kind of stability (see Kroger, Martinussen, & Marcia, 2010; Meeus,2011, for reviews and meta-analyses). First, in reviewing existing studies,Meeus (2011) argued that there is a good deal of stability in identity statuses,bothin individuals’ status membership over time and in their rank-orderstability. However, when changes are found, they generally indicate pro-gression in identity statuses such that individuals are moving towardcommitments that have been explored.

More recent derivations of the identity status literature have suggestedmore nuance to exploration and commitment. For example, Luyckx and col-leagues (Luyckx, Goossens, & Soenens, 2006; Luyckx, Goosens, Soenens, &Beyers, 2006) have unpacked exploration into ‘‘exploration-in-depth’’ and‘‘exploration-in-breadth.’’Exploration in breadth is similar toMarcia’s originalconceptualizations, and captures the degree to which individuals evaluate andconsider multiple possibilities for potential commitment. Exploration in depth,however, is indicative of continued evaluation of one’s commitments after theyhave been chosen, and may indicate a maintenance process for one’s commit-ments. Similarly,Meeus and colleagues (seeMeeus, 2011, for a review) concep-tualize the continuous nature of identity processes as a dynamic cycle of

10 MCLEAN AND PASUPATHI

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Kat

e C

. McL

ean]

at 0

8:25

14

Febr

uary

201

2

commitment, reconsideration, and deeper exploration, the latter of which isalso indicative of a maintenance process once commitments have been made.

Although there has clearly been a much work done to unpack the role ofexploration and commitment and the different forms they make take (e.g.,breadth versus depth), a criticism of status research is that the proximal pro-cesses involved in identity development have been neglected (cf., Grotevant,1987; Grotevant & Cooper, 1985). Marcia’s original interview assessmentdid include questions about processes of identity exploration and commit-ment (e.g., ‘‘How did you decide to come to X university?’’ Marcia,2007), but many current assessments are survey based and ask close-endedquestions about what one thinks about the processes of exploration andcommitment (e.g., ‘‘Based on past experiences, I’ve chosen the type of dat-ing relationship I want now,’’ Bennion & Adams, 1986; ‘‘I’ve spent a lot oftime reading and trying to make some sense out of political issues,’’Berzonsky, 1992). Thus, identity status researchers theoretically emphasizeand value the processes of exploration and commitment, but emphasis isplaced on the present conception of these processes. Survey-based measuresoffer researchers less direct evidence about how commitments were reachedand what it might mean to base a commitment on past experience. Thus, acomplement to the status approaches is the narrative approach to identity,because although narrative is not the only process by which one can examineexploration and commitment, it is one that is ecologically valid, concep-tually rich, and also derives from Erikson’s identity theory.

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL REASONING: THE NARRATIVE APPROACH

Erikson’s concerns with current and future commitments were rooted in hiswork on psychobiography, an emphasis that helped to inspire anotherapproach to identity development—one focused on the construction ofthe self via the reconstruction of one’s past. The narrative approach empha-sizes the sorting through of past experiences to better understand one’scurrent state, as described, for example, by McAdams (1988):

It is an individual’s story which has the power to tie together past, present, andfuture in his or her life. It is a story which is able to provide unity and purpose.It is a story which specifies a personalized ‘‘niche’’ in the adult world and senseof continuity and sameness across situations and over time. (p. 18)

Thus, whereas personal continuity from the status perspective is achievedvia the adoption of commitments that guide the person from the present intothe future, personal continuity from the narrative perspective is achieved


Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Kat

e C

. McL

ean]

at 0

8:25

14

Febr

uary

201

2

via the creation of a story of how past experiences led to the present self(McAdams, 1988).

Key to weaving this story of the past is the idea of autobiographicalreasoning, defined as the individuals’ active reflection on their personalpast to make explicit connections between their past and current selves(Habermas & Bluck, 2000). For example, in narrating what happened dur-ing a childhood experience, people can and do articulate how the event hasshaped their current preferences and beliefs, how the event showcases animportant change in their character from past to present, or how the eventillustrates a major theme in their entire life to date. All of these types of rela-tionships are contained within the concept of autobiographical reasoning.

Autobiographical reasoning provides a specific process for pathways ofexploration, but there are different ways to examine it. Indeed, one can con-ceptualize narrative research as being focused on either outcomes of a reflec-tive process, typically reflected in stories important to one’s self-definition oron active narration processes about all kinds of stories. In terms of theapproach that focuses on outcomes of reflective processes, many researchersview narratives of important life events as reflecting both commitments andprocesses of reasoning as recalled by participant. For example, researchershave examined the degree to which one reports gaining insights about one-self or the world (e.g., McLean & Thorne, 2003) or making explicit connec-tions between oneself and past events (e.g., Pasupathi & Mansour, 2006).These insights and connections are viewed as manifestations of reasoningprocesses and also as potential commitments such as an insight about thekind of vocation to which one is called.

Other models of narrative identity examine how the act of narratingeveryday and important events influences the conclusions that individualsdraw about themselves in their stories (McLean, Pasupathi, & Pals, 2007;Pasupathi, 2006). Although everyday stories may not necessarily be the epi-sodes included in one’s life story, in telling them narrative identity developsand is sustained. Further, this approach provides researchers with a broaderlens to examine the role of others and the more everyday aspects of narrativeprocesses. Indeed, the narration of stories may be one process by whichidentity statuses remain relatively stable; that is, one’s conception of havingexplored and committed to ideologies may be maintained by telling storiesabout that process of exploration and commitment.

Audiences play a particularly important role in this process of narratingeveryday stories. For example, Pasupathi and colleagues have shownthat narratives told to a distracted listener are less detailed and elaborated,particularly about the meaning of the experience (Pasupathi & Hoyt,2009), and that talking to a responsive listener results in more meaning-ladenand interpretive stories (Pasupathi & Hoyt, 2009; Weeks & Pasupathi, in


Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Kat

e C

. McL

ean]

at 0

8:25

14

Febr

uary

201

2

press). Further, in conversations between romantic partners, creating sharedmeaning of one individual’s story predicts the retention of those meaningsover time (McLean & Pasupathi, 2010; see also Pasupathi & Hoyt, 2010).

These two approaches to the study of narrative identity are not in con-flict. Indeed, theorists posit that the process of narration leads to the devel-opment of the reflective processes necessary for constructing a narrativeidentity (e.g., McLean et al., 2007; Pasupathi, Mansour, & Brubaker,2007). In one recent longitudinal study (Reese, Jack, & White, 2010), themore mothers asked elaborative questions of their children in early child-hood, the more likely their children were to report personal insights in nar-rating their life events during an interview in early adolescence. This is oneof the few studies that has shown a link between acts of narration in every-day life and outcomes that are indicative of narrative identity development.

COMPARISON OF THE TWO APPROACHESAND SUGGESTIONS FOR INTEGRATION

Both the status and narrative approaches value and place theoreticalemphasis on the processes of identity development. However, by virtue ofcommonly used methods in each approach, we suggest that the statusapproach does not adequately capture the processes involved in identitydevelopment and the narrative approach does not adequately capture thedevelopmental shifts and nuances in identity processes. One integration ofthese approaches involves using narratives to examine the processes ofexploration and commitment, as they work to promote stability and devel-opment in identity statuses. Such an integration addresses one of the empiri-cal gaps in the statuses approach—namely, the lack of attention to howpeople engage in exploration and commitment. It also addresses one ofthe empirical gaps in the narrative approach—the capacity to link processesof exploration and commitment to assessments of whether or notindividuals have developed an identity in Eriksonian terms.

There has been some limited empirical work examining how identity sta-tus indicators are related to narrative indicators. One study found that thosewho have engaged in greater narrative processing of past events scoredhigher on indicators of identity achievement (McLean & Pratt, 2006; seealso McAdams, 1988). Another finding showed that ethnic identity statusesare associated with different kinds of themes in stories about ethnicity(Syed & Azmitia, 2008). Specifically, those at the ethnic identity statusesof achievement and moratorium reported more stories about experienceswith prejudice than those at lower statuses, and those at the achievementstatus reported more stories about connection to their own culture than


Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Kat

e C

. McL

ean]

at 0

8:25

14

Febr

uary

201

2

did other groups. Further, increases in the status variable of exploration pre-dicted changes in story themes over time (Syed & Azmitia, 2010), which isconsistent with the idea that exploration was taking place via the construc-tion of multiple kinds of ethnicity-related narratives. Finally, Pasupathi,Wainryb, and Twali (2012) found that various indicators of elaborationand emotionality in ethnic discrimination narratives were associated withethnic identity exploration and commitment, but primarily for ethnic min-ority individuals.

These correlations can be interpreted as supporting two claims aboutrelations between the narrative identity and identity status models. One isthat people are likely to use narratives to explore possible identities. Thesecond is that narratives are also likely to reflect, and possibly bolster, peo-ple’s commitments to important identities. However, the evidence aboveconstitutes the only direct evidence linking exploration and commitmentfrom a status perspective to narrative identity processes. In what follows,we review additional findings within the narrative, status, and relatedliteratures that provide indirect support for these two claims.

Narrative Is the Means by Which the Identity Processof Exploration Can Be Carried out

When people construct narratives, they may use narration as a way ofexploring potential identity commitments. In doing so, they can also tryout those identities and commitments in social contexts. We review evidenceto support this claim, which demonstrates that narratives reflect a process oftrying out identities (goals, self-views) and that this process is influenced bysocial contexts.

Many narrative identity researchers have examined indicators of autobio-graphical reasoning, which include what one has learned about the self frompast events (e.g., McLean & Thorne, 2003), connections between events andthe self (e.g., Pasupathi et al., 2007), and redemption and contaminationsequences (e.g., McAdams, Reynolds, Lewis, Patten, & Bowman, 2001).Many of these indicators of autobiographical reasoning seem to be primafacie evidence of the role of narration in identity exploration since peopleare explicitly articulating relationships between self and experience in the con-text of storytelling (McLean, 2005; McLean & Thorne, 2003; McLean et al.,2007; Pasupathi et al., 2007). Such contents are also linked to the desire tofind meaning in events and to the construction of narratives for the purposeof finding meaning (McLean, 2005; Pasupathi, 2007; Weeks & Pasupathi,2011). Developmentally, such contents emerge in early adolescence and,for events deemed somewhat important, rise in prevalence throughmiddle age (Habermas & de Silviera, 2008; McLean & Breen, 2009; McLean,


Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Kat

e C

. McL

ean]

at 0

8:25

14

Febr

uary

201

2

Breen, & Fournier, 2010; Pasupathi &Mansour, 2006; Pasupathi &Wainryb,2010a). However, as self-views become more well established over adulthood,the level of engagement in narratives that challenge the self drops off, consist-ent with the idea that narratives reflect the presence of identity exploration atages where exploration is salient and frequent and the absence of explorationat life phases where identity is established (e.g., McLean, 2008; Meeus, 2011;Pasupathi & Mansour, 2006; Rice & Pasupathi, 2010).

As Erikson focused on the issue of uncertainty or crisis for identity work,narrative researchers have focused on moments of challenge or threat aspotential opportunities for learning about the self (e.g., King, 2001;Mansfield, McLean, & Lilgendahl, 2010; Pals, 2006). That is, narrativereflection is more likely for unexpected events or outcomes (Bruner,1990). For example, among adolescents and emerging adults, parental div-orce is a common and disruptive event that individuals narrate as importantto their self-definitions. Parental divorce provides an opening for thoughtsabout the meaning of romantic relationships, perceptions of relationshipswith one’s parents, or myriad other insights that might be drawn aboutone’s personal character after having experienced such an event. Forexample, in reflecting on his parents’ divorce, one 18-year-old in one ofour studies wrote,

I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, and that adversitypromotes growth. I know that the problems I have encountered in my life [thedivorce and subsequent events], and the ability to overcome those problemshave shaped who I am as a person.

Thus, this disruptive event created an opportunity for reflection about hischaracter, a reflection that may be critical to his narrative identity. Yetthe process of learning about oneself does not usually happen in the momentof experience, but instead when one reflects back on those moments. Indeed,this participant reported these insights about himself 10 years after thedivorce.

In the context of arguing that narratives are a process of identity explo-ration, one way to interpret the findings reviewed above is that experiencesthat press for exploration via meaning making are experiences that pose chal-lenges to a person’s identity commitments in terms of beliefs about the selfand goals for the future. In that line, recent work has pointed to the potentialimportance of transgression experiences in particular (Mansfield et al., 2010;Pasupathi, McLean, & Weeks, 2009; Pasupathi & Wainryb, 2010b; see also,Nisan, 1991). Such events are negative, but also implicate the narrators asindividuals who have violated their own values and beliefs—in short, theiridentity. Indeed, people have greater difficulty narrating transgressions as


Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Kat

e C

. McL

ean]

at 0

8:25

14

Febr

uary

201

2

compared to other negative events (e.g., Pasupathi et al., 2007), and trans-gression experiences are often narrated in more complex ways than othernegative events, with more reflective content (Pasupathi & Wainryb,2010b), particularly for those who are wise (Mansfield et al., 2010).

The types of narrative exploration in which people engage can take placein written or solitary narratives, but often take place in conversations withparents, friends, and romantic partners. These conversations offer opportu-nities for listeners to support, refute, elaborate, or ignore explored identities(McLean et al., 2007). A large body of work has shown that responsive andsupportive listeners help children and adults to express the meanings of theirexperiences (for reviews, see Fivush, Haden, & Reese, 2006; McLean et al.,2007) and that expression is tantamount to exploration. Among adolescentsand emerging adults, responsive listeners are key in allowing people to inte-grate negative events within their sense of themselves (Weeks & Pasupathi,in press) and in supporting the identities they offer in conversational narra-tives (Pasupathi & Rich, 2005; Weeks & Pasupathi, 2010). Interestingly, inadolescence, support and challenge from mothers seem to be important inpredicting narrative processes (McLean & Mansfield, 2011). Similarly, con-versations about nonautobiographical events in which parents support, aswell as challenge, their adolescent’s ideas are associated with adolescentidentity achievement (Grotevant & Cooper, 1985). This challenge may comeat a time when adolescents have more of their own resources, compared tochildhood, to articulate their identity claims.

To better illustrate how narration can entail exploring potential identitiesand the role played by listeners, we present the following story, which wasshared in a conversation between two emerging adult romantic partnersearly in their relationship. The memory that the teller shares is about arecent experience not previously shared with her boyfriend.

T: and . . . uhm. . . my ex-boyfriend, whom I just broke up with (laugh).Uhm . . . he brought his new girlfriend to the practice and I noticed thatshe was lonely so I went up and started talking to her and I found outthrough my other friends that she does not like me so I tried to makefriends with her and I noticed that we had a lot in common. And so,now we are acquaintances, now despite, I just put away all that bad feelingI had towards her and just started talking to her and uhmm . . . you knowall my other friends were telling me I could be the . . .

L: . . . bad person.T: . . . the bad person. Like not . . . to be the bad ex-girlfriend if I wanted to.

But I just wanted to put that away just because she is a new person andI wanted to meet her and she seemed like an interesting person.So . . . that’s why I just, you know, started talking to her. It was kind ofweird because, like, it was a really hard time. And I just—


Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Kat

e C

. McL

ean]

at 0

8:25

14

Febr

uary

201

2

L: hmm . . .T: —yeah. So I just put on a smile and started talking to her.L: Wow, you never told me about that till now.T: yeah.

In this excerpt, the teller explores a threatened identity (the ‘‘bad’’ex-girlfriend) and a more appealing alternative—being the type of personwho does not hold grudges or maintain or escalate hostilities. The event ofmaking overtures toward her ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend, despite the diffi-culties it entailed, is proffered as tentative evidence for the viability of thisalternative, more morally upright identity. The new boyfriend does not offerexplicit meanings, but supports the teller’s exploration by paying attentionand being supportive of her even as she expresses a less desirable possible self,suggested most strongly when he actually completes the phrase ‘‘bad person.’’

Considering narrative as a way of engaging in exploration of identitiesopens the scope for narrative identity researchers beyond the types of eventsthat constitute life stories. Researchers have referred to these stories as‘‘small stories,’’ thus distinguishing them from turning points or major lifestory moments (Bamberg, 2004, 2006, 2008; McLean & Thorne, 2006;Pasupathi, 2006). The above story is a case in point, because it is unlikelyto be material for the life story of the teller. In fact, she may not evenremember this event 5 years from now.

Given the fact that they are likely to be forgotten over time, small storiesare frequently centered on recently experienced events with emotional sal-ience and current goal relevance. Small stories integrate the very recent pastwith the present and near-term future in ways that are likely nested withinthe construction of the life story, with its longer temporal perspective andmore momentous implications. But one implication of integrating narrativeidentity work with status identity work is that exploration surely occurs inthe context of mundane as well as momentous events and can be examinedaccordingly.

Indeed, not all narration involves explicit attempts to explore identities asreflected in the content of the narrative. Rather, a lot of narration is engagedin primarily to pass time and entertain others (see McLean, 2005; McLean &Morrison-Cohen, in press; McLean & Thorne, 2006; Pasupathi, 2006), yeteven this type of narration may involve exploration of identities for selfand other. First, such narration is deemed important to people’s selvesbecause many such stories are nominated as self-defining (McLean, 2005;McLean & Thorne, 2006). Second, such narration often involves exploringan identity by performing it—the ‘‘raconteur’’ self and the nature of the selfthat is dramatized (Bamberg, 2004; McLean & Morrison-Cohen, in press;Pasupathi, 2006). Bamberg and others (Bamberg, 2004, 2008; Depperman,


Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Kat

e C

. McL

ean]

at 0

8:25

14

Febr

uary

201

2

2003, 2007) have examined the multilayered processes by which such ‘‘light’’narrations also constitute identity. From these perspectives, listenerresponses also serve to support (by laughing and engaging) or ignore (byfailing to appreciate the humor) proffered identities. A full treatment ofthese arguments is beyond our scope, but we emphasize that people buildidentities in ways that extend beyond just the deep, meaning-laden, andreflective stories that constitute the life story.

Narratives and Narrative Processing Also Reflect Commitments andCan Promote Greater Consistency Between Commitments andBehaviors

Although narrative may be one process by which identities are explored,narratives may also play a role in future commitments. From a narrativeperspective, past reconstruction is the foundation on which the currentand future self (and perhaps commitments) stand (McAdams, 1988). Here,we present the full divorce narrative excerpted above from an 18-year-old inone of our studies, which exemplifies the idea that current and future com-mitments are rooted in past experiences and the meanings individualsascribe to those events in narrative.

When I was seven I really didn’t have a clue about life or anything in life, asmost normal seven year olds. One night, I remember, after a long drawn outfight, my mom woke me up in the middle of the night and her and my brotherand I left . . . later I found out my parents were getting a divorce. The reasonwhy it is such a self-defining memory is because I came to be very independentand self-sufficient. Obviously, the only people at the time that I could rely on letme down. I became the ‘‘man of the family’’ and took on many responsibilitiesthat a normal 7 year old would not have. [Recently] I was telling my boss atwork about my past family life. He was amazed at my strength and charac-ter—that something good could come out of those traumatic experiences. Iam a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, and that adversity pro-motes growth. I know that the problems I have encountered in my life, and theability to overcome those problems have shaped who I am as a person.

This narrative articulates an identity commitment to self-reliance andseeking opportunities to grow in the face of difficult times. That commit-ment is rooted in a traumatic childhood experience and the narrative as awhole suggests that, when this participant next encounters a challenge,he will be able to draw on this experience to bolster and sustain hiscommitment to being a responsible and strong person.

In considering commitments, a number of motivational constructs fromoutside the narrative world are also potentially useful to consider. These


Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Kat

e C

. McL

ean]

at 0

8:25

14

Febr

uary

201

2

include concepts such as finding a goal or identity-linked activity interesting(Thoman, Sansone, & Pasupathi, 2007), intrinsically motivating (Weinstein,Deci, & Ryan, 2011), or need satisfying (Philippe, Koestner, Beaulieu-Pelletier, & Lecours, in press), viewing goals as attainable or not (Moffit &Singer, 1994), a tendency to approach or avoid undesired outcomes (Bauer,McAdams, & Sakeda, 2005), a sense that one’s experiences are congruentwith identity-related commitments in the form of values and goals(Bauer & McAdams, 2000), and actual, goal-consistent behaviors (e.g.,Breen, 2009; Cox & McAdams, 2010). These goal-related concepts tapvarious aspects of motivational processes and are all associated with a higherlikelihood of attaining goals. Below, we review evidence that (a) narrativesare linked to these goal-relevant concepts, and (b) narratives are linked toactual goal-relevant behavior. These findings speak to the notion that nar-ration can promote greater consistency between commitments and behaviors.

In many cases, commitments in the form of goals arise explicitly orimplicitly from particular ways of narrating experiences. For example, Singer,King, Green, and Barr (2002) found that narrating stories of personal growthabout service learning experiences predicted a greater desire to contribute tothe next generation. Further, narrating everyday actions to a responsivelistener is related to enhanced interest in a novel activity or experience overtime (Thoman, Sansone, Pasupathi, & Arizaga, 2010; Thoman et al., 2007).

In addition to goals themselves, goal-relevant concepts like optimism, striv-ings, and motives have been linked to narrative indicators. Singer and collea-gues (Moffit & Singer, 1994) found that the emotional valence of memories islinked to the perceived likelihood of achievement or failure at current striv-ings, with more positively toned memories linked to greater optimism aboutachieving strivings and more negatively toned memories linked to pessimismabout achieving strivings. McAdams and colleagues consistently found linksbetween redemptive sequences in life stories and generativity motives (e.g.,McAdams, Reynolds, Lewis, Patten, & Bowman, 2001). In the longer term,Sutin and Robins (2005) found that affect and motives expressed in self-defining memories predicted changes in personality and well-being over 4years. For example, those with higher positive affect and achievement motiv-ation expressed in narratives at Time 1 showed increases in self-esteem 4 yearslater. These findings suggest that narratives articulate general motives and thatthe pursuit of those motives is consistent with changes in the self over time.

Some studies have examined the link between reflection and behaviorover time. For example, Cox and McAdams (2010) found that the degreeto which college students narrated stories of self-transformation after avolunteer trip to work with poor citizens of Nicaragua predicted theirvolunteer behavior after the trip, controlling for previous volunteer experi-ence. Interestingly, in that same study, pretrip volunteerism was negatively


Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Kat

e C

. McL

ean]

at 0

8:25

14

Febr

uary

201

2

correlated with themes of helplessness in narratives written about the trip.This suggests that current perspectives predict story themes, which predictlater behavior, which is consistent with dynamic models of narrativeidentity (e.g., McLean et al., 2007). Notably, these studies did not examinebehavior in vivo, but rather self-reports of behavior (Cox & McAdams, inpress) or the anticipation of behavior (Moffit & Singer, 1994).

Outside of the narrative approach, some studies also have suggested a linkbetween past reflection and current and future behavior. Libby and collea-gues (e.g., Libby & Eibach, 2009) conducted several experiments manipulat-ing the visual perspective with which one views a past event—from the first orthird person. They suggested that viewing past events from the third personperspective creates a self-reflective mode, in which people focus more on thecontext and meaning of past events, as opposed to the details of past events,which is the focus of the first-person perspective. In this way, thethird-person perspective may increase self-awareness in requiring an observerstance on the self. In terms of the clearest connections between past reflectionand future behavior, Libby and Eibach (2002) found that using the third per-son to reflect on past overindulgences predicted less indulgent eating beha-vior at a future Thanksgiving dinner. Related findings are also found inthe moral development literature, in which prosocial behaviors lead toincreases in moral identity, but only when participants reflect on their proso-cial acts (Hardy & Carlo, 2005; Hart, 2005). This research is consistent withthe idea that, when people take a self-reflective stance on their past, theirfuture behaviors are more likely to be consistent with their commitments.

SUMMARY AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS FOR EMPIRICAL WORK

We think that there is clearly good reason to further pursue connectionsbetween narrative and status approaches to identity development to garnera deeper and broader understanding of identity, particularly focusing on abreadth of temporal span. We raise several issues for future research thatemerged from this review.

Causality

First, the direction of causality is unclear in much of the work we havereported. For example, theories about autobiographical memory and self,which emphasize how current goal structures or motivations influencememory retrieval processes (e.g., Conway & Pleydell-Pearce, 2000; Ross &Wilson, 2003; Sanitioso, Kunda, & Fong, 1990), imply that it is commit-ments that ‘‘cause’’ narratives to take particular forms and contents.


Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Kat

e C

. McL

ean]

at 0

8:25

14

Febr

uary

201

2

For the claim that narratives reflect commitments, this is not a concern.However, the findings above also suggest that in some instances commit-ments arise out of narrative processing, and exploring this possibility willrequire prospective and longitudinal investigations.

Exploration Versus Commitment

Although the findings we reviewed link narrative indicators to explorationand commitment or related concepts, those links were seldom the expressedpurpose of the presented study. As a result, the same findings may indicatethat narratives that are rich with greater degrees of expressed personalmeaning reflect exploration, but also simultaneously commitment. Onepossibility is that exploration and commitment, from the status approach,are difficult to disentangle and scales attempting to separate them maysometimes be highly correlated (see Pasupathi et al., 2012; Phinney, 1992).From that standpoint, the overlap of narrative indicators of identity explo-ration and commitment makes empirical sense. An alternative, though,might be that narrative researchers can make use of the concepts of explo-ration and commitment to conceptualize distinctions between indicators ofexploration and indicators of commitment. Some approaches like thisalready exist in the literature. For example, in her work on the narrationof difficult life events, Pals (2006) distinguished between exploratoryprocessing, an outcome consistent with exploration, and positiveself-transformation, an outcome consistent with commitment. Similarly, inlooking at narratives from those who have experienced different kinds ofstressful life events, King and her collaborators distinguished between elab-oration and accommodation and closure (e.g., King, Scollon, Ramsey, &Williams, 2000; King & Raspin, 2004), processes that sound conceptuallycongruent with exploration and commitment, respectively.

These issues generally point toward two kinds of additional suggestionsfor researchers who typically take a narrative or a status perspective on ident-ity development. For narrative researchers, it might be worthwhile tobroaden the focus on negative and unexpected experiences to also includethe narration of events that should be important from a status perspective.This is analogous to the approach taken by Syed and Azmitia (2008, 2010)in examining ethnic identity and that taken by Bauer and colleagues in look-ing at important life decisions (Bauer et al., 2005), but could be expanded toinvolve other domains. For example, in the relationship domain, Buehlman,Gottman, and Katz (1992) found that the way couples narrate the history oftheir relationship is related to marital satisfaction and marital dissolution.Narratives about education- or career-related experiences, such as collegevisits, career fairs, first days on the job, and career successes and setbacks,


Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Kat

e C

. McL

ean]

at 0

8:25

14

Febr

uary

201

2

may also be fruitful to explore. Such events are certainly already in the mix ofwhat narrative researchers have been studying all along, as these are eventsoften cited as the turning points and crises in our lives and the momentousevents and vivid memories that set us on particular life courses (Pillemer,1998). However, narrative researchers could cast a broader net foridentity-relevant experiences and, in doing so, might be able to capture theprocesses by which commitments emerge out of exploration.

For identity status researchers, it might be worthwhile to begin by elicitingidentity commitments and then to examine how those commitments are, orare not, rooted in the past. We propose that individuals who are able to pointto specific past experiences to explain why they have made these commit-ments may (a) have stronger commitments, (b) be more likely to behave inways consistent with those commitments, and (c) have commitments that lastlonger. For example, consider this example drawn from a study ofmother-adolescent conversations about past events. In this study (McLean& Jennings, in press; McLean & Mansfield, 2011), mothers and adolescentshad a conversation about several memories, and some of the adolescents alsohad a similar conversation with a friend at a later time point. The quotation isfrom a 17-year-old boy we call Adam and his mother who are talking about amemory that is important to Adam’s sense of self (emphasis added):

Adam: A specific personal memory is Mexico again. It was from being outthere kayaking, being outside for so long kind of gave me an ideapartially about what I want to do.

Mother: Mm hmmAdam: You know just being out there, outside, that’s a part of just hanging

out and relaxing, you now, I think that was part of, that trip definitelytaught me partially about . . . I’m not going to say something cheesyabout who I am, but it kind of gave me ideas about who I want to be.

Mother: uh huh, mm hmmAdam: You could say, uh, it gave me an idea that I want to do something out-

side. I had ideas before, but that really kinda helped solidify them,gave me ideas.

Mother: mm hmmAdam: I’d say that would be the most specific one that says something

about me as a person.Mother: Those are both good, Adam.One of them kind of speaks to a quality you

want to have, you know, and one speaks to kind of what you want to do.

In this conversation, Adam linked a current and future commitmentabout wanting to ‘‘do something outside’’ to a past experience of kayaking.The conversation about a past event offered Adam the opportunity to makethis connection between the past and present or future self and for his


Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Kat

e C

. McL

ean]

at 0

8:25

14

Febr

uary

201

2

mother to support, validate, and articulate that commitment. Interestingly,a few weeks later, Adam had a conversation with a friend in which theyengaged in the same task of sharing several past events with each other.Adam further elaborated on the meaning of the same memory to hiscommitments in this conversation:

Adam: Yeah whatever. And it really, it kinda started to show me that I reallyliked being outside a lot more than I’ve ever thought of. Like I neverreally thought about what it meant for me to be outside and activeall the time. And. . . those trips really kind of showed me that and itkinda showed me that I didn’t want to spend my life inside. I didn’t wantto have . . . I was kind of already to the point where I realized I wouldnever be able to have an office job, I’d never be able to sit at a com-puter screen from 9 to 5. I needed to be . . . I still think this, I need to beoutside. And it was kind of a realization for me. And that memory,that memory. . . those two trips . . . really showed me that I’m an out-doorsy kind of person, I don’t want to sound too arrogant here.

Friend: Yeah, that’s you!Adam: I’m outdoorsy! Even (inaudible) than me.Friend: (Inaudible) just don’t hear that.Adam: It kind of showed me what I wanted to be, what image I wanted to

have of myself.Friend: That’s good.Adam: It just really showed me things about myself that I’d never been truly

aware of.Friend: Solid.

In this conversation, Adam better articulated how the past event relatesto his current and future commitment in the realm of work. He has nowreceived support from his mother and his friend, which we suggest will makethis commitment more likely to last. However, only a longitudinal study willbe able to answer that question.

In conclusion, Erikson’s seminal ideas are still alive and well, providingrich ideas for the study of identity. His notions of identity synthesis derivingfrom the reconstruction of childhood experiences to fit with current andfuture commitments have been articulated, separately, in these two areasof research. Now is a choice moment to integrate these approaches to realizea broader and deeper understanding of identity development.

REFERENCES

Bamberg, M. (2004). Form and functions of ‘‘slut bashing’’ in male identity constructions in

15-year-olds. Human Development, 47, 331–353.

Bamberg, M. (2006). Stories: Big or small: Why do we care? Narrative Inquiry, 16, 139–147.


Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Kat

e C

. McL

ean]

at 0

8:25

14

Febr

uary

201

2

Bamberg, M. (2008). Twice-told-tales: Small story analysis and the process of identity forma-

tion. In T. Sugiman, K. Gergen, W. Wagner, & Y. Yamada (Eds.), Meaning in action:

Constructions, narratives, and representations (pp. 183–204). New York, NY: Springer.

Bauer, J. J., & McAdams, D. P. (2000). Competence, relatedness, and autonomy in life stories.

Psychological Inquiry, 11, 276–279.

Bauer, J. J.,McAdams, D. P., & Sakaeda, A. R. (2005). Crystallization of desire and crystallization

of discontent in narratives of life-changing decisions. Journal of Personality, 73, 1181–1213.

Bennion, L. D., & Adams, G. R. (1986). A revision of the extended version of the Objective

Measure of Ego Identity Status: An identity instrument for use with late adolescents.

Journal of Adolescent Research, 1, 183–197.

Berzonsky,M.D. (1992). Identity style and coping strategies. Journal of Personality, 60, 771–788.

Breen, A. V. (2009). The construction of self identity and positive behavioural change in pregnant

and parenting young women (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Toronto, Canada:

University of Toronto.

Bruner, J. S. (1990). Acts of meaning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Buehlman, K. I., Gottman, J. M., & Katz, L. F. (1992). How a couple views their past predicts

their future: Predicting divorce from an oral history interview. Journal of Family

Psychology, 5, 295–318.

Chandler, M. J., Lalonde, C. E., Sokol, B. W., & Hallett, D. (2003). Personal persistence, ident-

ity development, and suicide: A study of Native and non-Native North American

adolescents. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 68, vii–130.

Conway, M. A., & Pleydell-Pearce, C. W. (2000). The construction of autobiographical

memories in the self-memory system. Psychological Review, 107, 261–288.

Cote, J. E., & Levine, C. (1988). A critical examination of the ego identity status paradigm.

Developmental Review, 8, 147–184.

Cox, K., & McAdams, D. P. (2010). The transforming self: Service narratives and identity

change in emerging adulthood. Journal of Adolescent Research, 25, 1–26.

Deppermann, A. (2003). Using the other for oneself—Conversational practices of representing

out-group-members among adolescents. In A. DeFina, M. Bamberg, & D. Schiffrin

(Eds.), Talk and identity in narrative and discourse (pp. 273–301). Amsterdam, the

Netherlands: Benjamins.

Deppermann, A. (2007). Playing with the voice of the other: Stylized ‘‘Kanaksprak’’ in conver-

sations among German adolescents. In P. Auer (Ed.), Style and social identities—Alterna-

tive approaches to linguistic heterogeneity (pp. 325–360). Berlin, Germany: Mouton de

Gruyter, S.

Erikson, E. H. (1959). Identity and the life cycle; selected papers, with a historical introduction.

New York, NY: International Universities Press.

Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity: Youth, and crisis. New York, NY: Norton.

Fivush, R., Haden, C. A., & Reese, E. (2006). Elaborating on elaborations: Role of maternal

reminiscing style in cognitive and socioemotional development. Child Development, 77,

1568–1588.

Grotevant, H. D. (1987). Toward a process model of identity formation. Journal of Adolescent

Research, 3, 203–222.

Grovetant, H. D., & Cooper, C. R. (1985). Patterns of interaction in family relationships and

the development of identity exploration in adolescence. Child Development, 56, 415–428.

Habermas, T., & Bluck, S. (2000). Getting a life: The development of the life story in

adolescence. Psychological Bulletin, 126, 748–769.

Habermas, T., & de Silveira, C. (2008). The development of global coherence in life narratives

across adolescence: Temporal, causal, and thematic aspects. Developmental Psychology, 3,

707–721.


Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Kat

e C

. McL

ean]

at 0

8:25

14

Febr

uary

201

2

Hardy, S. A., & Carlo, G. (2005). Identity as a source of moral motivation. Human

Development, 48, 232–256.

Hart, D. (2005). The development of moral identity. In G. Carlo & C. P. Edwards (Eds.),Moral

motivation through the life span (pp. 165–196). Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.

King, L. A. (2001) The hard road to the good life: The happy, mature person. Journal of

Humanistic Psychology, 41, 51–72.

King, L. A., & Raspin, C. (2004). Lost and found possible selves, subjective well-being, and ego

development in divorced women. Journal of Personality, 72, 603–632.

King, L. A., Scollon, C. K., Ramsey, C., & Williams, T. (2000). Stories of life transition:

Subjective well-being and ego development in parents of children with Down syndrome.

Journal of Research in Personality, 34, 509–536.

Kroger, J., Martinussen, M., & Marcia, J. E. (2010). Identity status change during adolescence

and young adulthood: A meta-analysis. Journal of Adolescence, 33, 683–698.

Libby, L. K., & Eibach, R. P. (2002). Looking back in time: Self-concept change affects visual

perspective in autobiographical memory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82,

167–179.

Libby, L. K., & Eibach, R. P. (2009). Seeing the links among the personal past, present, and

future: How imagery perspective in mental simulation functions in defining the temporally

extended self. In K. D. Markman, W. M. P. Klein, & J. A. Suhr (Eds.), Handbook of

imagination and mental simulation (pp. 359–371). New York, NY: Psychology Press.

Luyckx, K., Goossens, L., & Soenens, B. (2006). A developmental contextual perspective on

identity construction in emerging adulthood: Change dynamics in commitment formation

and commitment evaluation. Developmental Psychology, 42, 366–380.

Luyckx, K., Goosens, L., Soenens, B., & Beyers, W. (2006). Unpacking commitment and

exploration: Preliminary validation of an integrative model of late adolescent identity

formation. Journal of Adolescence, 29, 361–378.

Mansfield, C., McLean, K. C., & Lilgendahl, J. P. (2010). Narrating traumas and transgres-

sions: Links between narrative processing, wisdom, and well-being. Narrative Inquiry,

20, 246–273.

Marcia, J. E. (1966). Development and validation of ego-identity status. Journal of Personality

and Social Psychology, 5, 551–558.

Marcia, J. E. (2001). A commentary on Seth Schwartz’s review of identity theory and research.

Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 1, 59–65.

Marcia, J. E. (2007). Theory and measure: The Identity Status Interview. In M. Watzlawik &

A. Born (Eds.), Capturing identity: Quantitative and qualitative methods (pp. 1–14).

Lanham, MD: University Press of America.

McAdams, D. P. (1988). Power, intimacy and the life story. New York, NY: Guilford Press.

McAdams, D. P., Reynolds, J., Lewis, M., Patten, A., & Bowman, P. J. (2001). When bad

things turn good and good things turn bad: Sequences of redemption and contamination

in life narrative, and their relation to psychosocial adaptation in midlife adults and in

students. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 472–483.

McLean, K. C. (2005). Late adolescent identity development: Narrative meaning-making and

memory telling. Developmental Psychology, 41, 683–691.

McLean, K. C. (2008). Stories of the young and the old: Reflections on self-continuity.

Developmental Psychology, 44, 254–164.

McLean, K. C., & Breen, A. (2009). Gender differences in adolescent meaning-making.


McLean, K. C., Breen, A., & Fournier, M. A. (2010). Adolescent identity development:

Narrative meaning-making and memory telling. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 20,

166–187.


Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Kat

e C

. McL

ean]

at 0

8:25

14

Febr

uary

201

2

McLean, K. C., & Jennings, L. E. (in press). Teens telling tales: How maternal and peer

audiences support narrative identity development. Journal of Adolescence.

McLean, K. C., & Mansfield, C. (in press). The co-construction of adolescent narrative

processes: Narrative processing as a function of adolescent age, gender, and maternal

scaffolding. Developmental Psychology, 5, 1–12.

McLean, K. C., & Morrison-Cohen, S. (in press). ‘‘But wait, it gets even weirder’’: The meaning

of stories. In C. Routledge & J. Hicks (Eds.), The experience of meaning in life: Classical

perspectives, emerging themes, and controversies. New York, NY: Springer.

McLean, K. C., & Pasupathi, M. (2010). Old, new, borrowed, and blue? The emergence

and retention of meaning in autobiographical storytelling. Journal of Personality, 79,

135–164.

McLean, K. C., Pasupathi, M., & Pals. J. L. (2007). Selves creating stories creating selves: A

process model of narrative self development in adolescence and adulthood. Personality

and Social Psychology Review, 11, 262–278.

McLean, K. C., & Pratt, M. W. (2006). Life’s little (and big) lessons: Identity statuses and

meaning-making in the turning point narratives of emerging adults. Developmental

Psychology, 42, 714–722.

McLean, K. C., & Thorne, A. (2003). Adolescents’ self-defining memories about relationships.


McLean, K. C., & Thorne, A. (2006). Identity light: Entertainment as a vehicle for self devel-

opment. In D. P. McAdams, R. R. Josselson, & A. Lieblich (Eds.), Identity and story:

Creating self in narrative (pp. 111–127). Washington, DC: APA Press.

Meeus, W. (2011). The study of adolescent identity formation 2000–2010: A review of longitudi-

nal research. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 21, 75–94.

Meeus, W., Iedema, J., Helsen, M., & Vollebergh, W. (1999). Patterns of adolescent identity

development: Review of literature and longitudinal analysis. Developmental Review, 19,

419–461.

Moffitt, K. H., & Singer, J. A. (1994). Continuity in the life story: Self-defining memories,

affect, and approach=avoidance personal strivings. Journal of Personality, 62, 21–43.

Nisan, M. (1991). The moral balance model: Theory and research extending our understanding

of moral choice and deviation. In W. M. Kutines & J. L. Gewirtz (Eds.), Handbook of

moral behavior and development (pp. 213–249). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Pals, J. L. (2006). The narrative identity processing of difficult life experiences: Pathways of

personality development and positive self-transformation in adulthood. Journal of

Personality, 74, 2–31.

Pasupathi, M. (2006). Silk from sows ears: Collaborative construction of everyday selves in

everyday stories. In D. P. McAdams, R. Josselson, & A. Lieblich (Eds.), Narrative study

of lives self & identity (pp. 129–150). Washington, DC: APA Press.

Pasupathi, M. (2007). Telling and the remembered self: Linguistic differences in memories for

previously disclosed and undisclosed events. Memory, 15, 258–270.

Pasupathi, M., & Hoyt, T. (2009). The development of narrative identity in late adolescence and

emergent adulthood: The continued importance of listeners. Developmental Psychology,

45, 558–574.

Pasupathi, M., & Hoyt, T. (2010). Silence and the shaping of memory: How distracted listeners

affect speakers’ subsequent recall of a computer game experience. Memory, 18, 159–169.

Pasupathi, M., & Mansour, E. (2006). Adult age differences in autobiographical reasoning in

narratives. Developmental Psychology, 42, 798–808.

Pasupathi, M., Mansour, E., & Brubaker, J. (2007). Developing a life story: Constructing

relations between self and experience in autobiographical narratives. Human Development,

50, 85–110.


Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Kat

e C

. McL

ean]

at 0

8:25

14

Febr

uary

201

2

Pasupathi, M., McLean, K. C., & Weeks, T. (2009). The told and untold narrative self. Journal

of Personality, 77, 89–124.

Pasupathi, M., & Rich, B. (2005). Inattentive listening undermines self-verification in personal

storytelling. Journal of Personality, 73, 1051–1085.

Pasupathi, M., & Wainryb, C. (2010a). On telling the whole story: Facts and interpretations

in autobiographical memory narratives from childhood through midadolescence.


Pasupathi, M., & Wainryb, C. (2010b). Developing moral agency through narrative. Human

Development, 53, 55–80.

Pasupathi, M., Wainryb, C., & Twali, M. (2012). Relations between narrative construction of

ethnicity-based discrimination and ethnic identity exploration and pride. Identity: An

International Journal of Theory and Research, 12, 53–73.

Philippe, F., Koestner, R., Beaulieu-Pelletier, & Lecours, S. (in press). The role of need satisfac-

tion as a distinct and basic psychological component of autobiographical memories: A

look at well-being. Journal of Personality.

Phinney, J. S. (1992). The multigroup ethnic identity measure: A new scale for use with diverse

groups. Journal of Adolescent Research, 7, 156–176.

Pillemer, D. B. (1998). Momentous events, vivid memories. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University

Press.

Reese, E., Jack, F., & White, N. (2010). Origins of adolescents’ autobiographical memories.

Cognitive Development, 25, 352–367.

Rice, C., & Pasupathi, M. (2010). Reflecting on self-relevant experiences: Adult age differences.


Ross, M., & Wilson, A. E. (2003). Autobiographical memory and conceptions of self: Getting

better all the time. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 12, 66–69.

Sanitioso, R., Kunda, Z., & Fong, G. T. (1990). Motivated recruitment of autobiographical

memories. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59, 229–241.

Schwartz, S. J. (2001). The evolution of Eriksonian and neo-Eriksonian identity theory and

research: A review and integration. Identity: An International Journal of Theory and

Research, 1, 7–58.

Singer, J. A., King, L. A., Green, M. C., & Barr, S. C. (2002). Personal identity and civic

responsibility: ‘‘Rising to the occasion’’ narratives and generativity in community action

interns. Journal of Social Issues, 58, 535–556.

Stephen, J., Fraser, E., & Marcia, J. E. (1992). Moratorium-achievement (Mama) cycles in life-

span identity development: Value orientations and reasoning system correlates. Journal of

Adolescence, 15, 283–300.

Sutin, A. R., & Robins, R. W. (2005). Continuity and correlates of emotions and motives in

self-defining memories. Journal of Personality, 73, 793–824.

Syed, M., & Azmitia, M. (2008). A narrative approach to ethnic identity in emerging

adulthood: Bringing life to the identity status model. Developmental Psychology, 44,

1012–1027.

Syed, M., & Azmitia, M. (2010). Narrative and ethnic identity exploration: A longitudinal

account of emerging adults’ ethnicity-related experiences. Developmental Psychology, 46,

208–219.

Thoman, D. B., Sansone, C., & Pasupathi, M. (2007). Talking about interest: Exploring the

role of social interaction for regulating motivation and the interest experience. Journal

of Happiness Studies, 8, 335–370.

Thoman, D. B., Sansone, C., Pasupathi, M., & Arizaga, J. (2010, January). How conversation

partners affect the development of students’ interest and motivation. Las Vegas, NV: Poster

presented at the annual meeting of the Society of Personality and Social Psychology.


Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Kat

e C

. McL

ean]

at 0

8:25

14

Febr

uary

201

2

Weeks, T. L., & Pasupathi, M. (2010). Autonomy, identity, and narrative construction with

parents and friends. In K. C. McLean & M. Pasupathi (Eds.), Narrative identity develop-

ment in adolescence: Creating the storied self (pp. 65–92). New York, NY: Springer.

Weeks, T. L., & Pasupathi, M. (2011). Integrating novel experiences into the self: Narrating to

express meaning. Manuscript in preparation.

Weeks, T. L., & Pasupathi, M. (in press). Stability and change self-integration for negative

events: The role of listener responsiveness and elaboration. Journal of Personality.

Weinstein, N., Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2011). Motivational determinants of integrating

positive and negative past identities. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 100,

527–544.


Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Kat

e C

. McL

ean]

at 0

8:25

14

Febr

uary

201

2

processes of identity development: where i am and how i...

Documents