Master Narratives, Expectations of Change, and Their Effect on Temporal Appraisals

People hold narrative expectations for how humans generally change over the course of their lives. In some areas, people expect growth (e.g., wisdom), while in others, people expect stability (e.g., extroversion). However, do people apply those same expectations to the self? In five studies (total N = 1,372), participants rated selves as improving modestly over time in domains where stability should be expected (e.g., extroversion, quick-wittedness). Reported improvement was significantly larger in domains where growth should be expected (e.g., wisdom, rationality) than domains where stability should be expected. Further, in domains where growth should be expected participants reported improvement for selves and others. However, in domains where stability should be expected, participants reported improvement for selves but not others. Hence, participants used narrative expectations to inform projections of change. We discuss implications for future temporal self-appraisal research, heterogeneity of effect sizes in self-appraisal research, and between-culture differences in narratives.