{"title":"Does narrating the life story predict changes in personality traits and characteristics?","authors":"Rebekka Weidmann , Janina Larissa Bühler , Jenna Wünsche , Alexander Grob","doi":"10.1016/j.jrp.2024.104489","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>To measure narratives, individuals often participate in a life story interview, which bears similarity to a narrative therapeutic approach. Given that clinical interventions were shown to impact change in personality traits and characteristics, the present study explored whether narrating one’s life story is also linked to such changes. The pre-registered study compared 123 life-story-interview participants (<em>M</em><sub>age</sub> <em>=</em> 35.44 years) with 123 control-sample participants (<em>M</em><sub>age</sub> <em>=</em> 35.50 years). We assessed participants’ personality traits, optimism, self-esteem, life satisfaction, and affect before and 1 and 3 years after the interview. The findings suggest that the life story interview does not lead to consistent changes in personality traits and characteristics, indicating that this interview setting developed for measurement is different from an intervention.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48406,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Research in Personality","volume":"110 ","pages":"Article 104489"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6000,"publicationDate":"2024-03-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Research in Personality","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092656624000370","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
To measure narratives, individuals often participate in a life story interview, which bears similarity to a narrative therapeutic approach. Given that clinical interventions were shown to impact change in personality traits and characteristics, the present study explored whether narrating one’s life story is also linked to such changes. The pre-registered study compared 123 life-story-interview participants (Mage= 35.44 years) with 123 control-sample participants (Mage= 35.50 years). We assessed participants’ personality traits, optimism, self-esteem, life satisfaction, and affect before and 1 and 3 years after the interview. The findings suggest that the life story interview does not lead to consistent changes in personality traits and characteristics, indicating that this interview setting developed for measurement is different from an intervention.
期刊介绍:
Emphasizing experimental and descriptive research, the Journal of Research in Personality presents articles that examine important issues in the field of personality and in related fields basic to the understanding of personality. The subject matter includes treatments of genetic, physiological, motivational, learning, perceptual, cognitive, and social processes of both normal and abnormal kinds in human and animal subjects. Features: • Papers that present integrated sets of studies that address significant theoretical issues relating to personality. • Theoretical papers and critical reviews of current experimental and methodological interest. • Single, well-designed studies of an innovative nature. • Brief reports, including replication or null result studies of previously reported findings, or a well-designed studies addressing questions of limited scope.