Constructing Stories of Self-Growth: How Individual Differences in Patterns of Autobiographical Reasoning Relate to Well-Being in Midlife

Document Type

Book

Role

Author

Standard Number

0022-3506

Journal Title

Journal of Personality

Volume

79

Issue

2

First Page

391

Last Page

428

Publication Date

2011

Abstract

This study involved an in-depth quantitative analysis of midlife adults' life stories, using 'causal connections' -- i.e., interpretations of how past events shape the growth of the self -- as the core unit of narrative analysis. We found that interpretations of self-growth predict well-being even after controlling for traits and demographic factors and that growth from negative events is more predictive of well-being than growth from positive events. --author-supplied description

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