Agency and Communion in Brief Entire Life Narratives Across the Life Span

ObjectiveThe evolving life story is integral to personality, and motivational themes are central features of the life story. Personality implies individual differences that are relatively stable over time, but still allow for developmental processes. This study explored both long‐term stability and developmental change in thematic content of the life story.MethodFulfilled and unfulfilled agency and communion were studied in brief entire life narratives across 4 measurements in 12 years in a cohort‐sequential design including six cohorts (n = 172; age 8–77).ResultsFulfilled agency and communion, as well as unfulfilled agency exhibited moderate rank order stability over 4 and 8 years, fulfilled communion showed even a modest 12‐year stability, whereas unfulfilled communion displayed an unsystematic pattern. Developmentally, multilevel analyses revealed an inverted U‐shaped association between age and both fulfilled and unfulfilled agency, peaking in mid‐life. Fulfilled communion declined after emerging adulthood, but unexpectedly did not increase again in old age. Unfulfilled communion showed no systematic age trends. Girls and women told life narratives with more fulfilled and unfulfilled communion, whereas genders did not differ in either kind of agency.ConclusionThe content of the life story exhibits rank‐order stability over time and systematic mean‐level development across the life span.