Getting a life: The emergence of the life story in adolescence.

“Still, it is not until adolescence, according to Habermas and Bluck, that individuals craft causal narratives to explain how different events are linked together in the context of a biography. Causal coherence is exhibited in the increasing effort across adolescence to provide narrative accounts of one's life that exp…”

“Those most salient variations, noted by people in the same way in many different cultures (Church, 2000), may be viewed as comprising a core set of dispositional traits.”

“Even when children first begin to refer to the past verbally, at about 18 months of age, these references are fleeting and fragmentary (Nelson & Ross, 1980; Weist, 1986).”

“Accordingly, Habermas and Bluck (2000) proposed that it is not until adolescence that people can construct stories about their lives that exhibit causal coherence (a convincing account of how early events cause later events) and thematic coherence (the derivation of organizing themes or trends in a…”

“In terms of our proposals about coherence and abstraction, Habermas and Bluck (2000) found that the ability to understand one’s own”

“In this section, we report how we determined our sample size, all data exclusions (if any), all inclusion/exclusion criteria, whether inclusion/exclusion criteria were established prior to data analysis, all manipulations, and all measures in the study.”

“For example, Habermas & Bluck (2000) introduced the term autobiographical reasoning to illustrate the dynamic process of thinking about the past to make links to the self.”

“It is in adolescence that children begin to coalesce their memories into a life narrative (Habermas & Bluck, 2000; McAdams, 2001), and as children venture into a larger social world, reminiscing may play an increasingly vital part of their social interactions with family and friends.”

“It is during the transition to adolescence, revealed Habermas & Bluck (2000), that individuals begin to see in full what makes up an entire life, from birth through childhood, career, marriage, parenting, and so on, to death.”

“Habermas and Bluck (2000) have described the cognitive changes that must take place in order for the adolescent to initiate the crafting of the life story that is at the heart of McAdams’s theory of identity.”

“In addition, four items that reflect autobiographical reasoning (Habermas & Bluck, 2000) about the self loaded on the Directive factor.”

“With the shift in responsibility for career from institutions to individuals, people must "get a life" (Habermas & Bluck, 2000) and bridge transitions in that life by using what has been referred to as biographicity (Alheit, 1995) and identity work (Sveningsson & Alvesson, 2003).”

“…individual is able to integrate the aspects of his or her life into a coherent story should offer a unique perspective on well-being, not captured by dispositional personality traits or other individual differences (e.g., Freeman, 2010; Habermas & Bluck, 2000; Lysaker et al., 2003; McAdams, 2006a).”

“The commonality in these different terms is the use of a form of autobiographical reasoning to think about a life experience ( Habermas & Bluck, 2000 ).”

“…dilemmas relevant for the establishment of “identity,” they are said not to “have a life” before transiting into early adulthood (Erikson, 1963; Habermas & Bluck, 2000; Habermas & Paha, 2001; McAdams, 1985): the ability to conceive of life as an integrated narrative forms the cornerstone…”

“…to one's developing sense of self (e.g., Pals, 2006); thematic coherence, evaluative or reflective connections between episodes in the story (e.g., Habermas & Bluck, 2000); and draw from a cultural concept of biography (e.g., Habermas, 2007) or master narratives outlining the typical and expected…”

“By “actively creating coherence between events and the self” (Habermas & Bluck, 2000, p. 749), life stories enhance a sense of understanding and help individuals interpret and understand future experiences.”

“Autobiographical reasoning also encompasses the ways in which authors string together multiple events into causal sequences, in order to make a point or draw a conclusion about the self (Habermas & Bluck, 2000).”

“The ability to create such narratives develops through co-constructions of past events with primary caregivers in early childhood [128,130,271] and is further honed during adolescence [149].”

“Humans select and order personal memories, building a coherent and organized representation of the self (i.e. a 'self-narrative'; Gergen & Gergen, 1988; Habermas & Bluck, 2000).”

“…Development Meaning making is a kind of causal coherence used to integrate experiences, which emerges as late adolescents begin to think about constructing their life stories in order to explain how a past event led to or influenced another event or aspect of the self (Habermas & Bluck, 2000).”

“While McAdams and others [e.g., Habermas & Bluck, 2000] believe that the life story is a representation that people hold about how they came to be, they also view the life story as something that is not produced in its entirety on any specific occasion.”

“From a narrative perspective, maturity is synonymous with the ability to engage in autobiographical reasoning in order to construct a coherent and generative life story Dimensions of Self-Defining Memories 501 (Habermas & Bluck, 2000; McAdams, 2001; Staudinger, 1999, 2001; Thorne, 2000).”

“The term autobiographical reasoning is invoked to refer to the ways in which one’s life story is connected to one’s current sense of self (Habermas & Bluck, 2000).”

“Further studies can examine the interaction between music and processes that shape the emerging life story in adolescence (Habermas & Bluck, 2000), compare the retention of detail in music-related memories with alternatively cued memories in older adults, and determine whether music has a unique…”

“…all existing models of narrative coherence, however, is a theory of how and why these different dimensions of personal narrative coherence would develop at different rates across the lifespan (but see Habermas & Bluck, 2000, for a theory of developmental changes in the life story in adolescence).”

“Autobiographical memories comprise the story of our lives, rich in interactions and relationships, and in a very deep sense, provide a sense of self through a narrative identity (Habermas & Bluck, 2000 ; McAdams, 1992 ).”

“Indeed, both an understanding of the life story, via development of autobiographical memory (Habermas and Bluck, 2000), and prospective memory— the ability to hold in mind an intention to carry out an action at a future time (Ellis and Kvavilashvili, 2000)— have been shown to improve during adolescence.”

“We have reviewed probable motivational and cognitive developmental precursors to the emergence of the life story in detail elsewhere (Habermas & Bluck, 2000).”

“support children in integrating a broad variety of positive and negative life experiences (Habermas and Bluck, 2000).”

“Reviewing research on life-storytelling and narrative understanding, Habermas and Bluck (2000) demonstrate that the full expression of narrative identity awaits the consolidation of four different cognitive skills, each linked to a form of narrative coherence.”

“Theories of adolescent development have long focused on the centrality of identity development during this period ~see, e.g., Baumeister, 1997; Erikson, 1950, 1968; Habermas & Bluck, 2000; Harter, 1999; Marcia, 1980; Waterman, 1999!.”

“By tracing linkages between memory and self-structures, these researchers connected the narrative processing of experience to “autobiographical reasoning” (Habermas & Bluck, 2000).”

“The empirical evidence is consistent with the notion of selfcontinuity as a synthesizer of experience (Atchley, 1989; Troll & Skaff, 1997), and with self-continuity’s prevalence and importance (Breakwell, 1986; Habermas & Bluck, 2000).”

“These meaningful connections create a sense of unity and purpose in life and are the essence of a psychological sense of identity (Habermas & Bluck, 2000; McAdams, 1988).”

“Within psychology, there is growing evidence that individuals, at least in modern Western cultures, share a “script” or “canonical cultural biography” of what a typical life looks like (Berntsen & Rubin, 2004 ; Berntsen & Bohn, in press ; Habermas & Bluck, 2000 ).”

“Habermas and Bluck (2000) provided converging evidence for the importance of identity in emerging adulthood, suggesting that late adolescence marks the emergence of the integra- 1 We use the term collective identity rather than social identity because of the potential for confusion surrounding the…”

“The capacity to construct a coherent life story first emerges in late adolescence when individuals become able to engage in autobiographical reasoning, defined by Habermas and Bluck (2000) as “a process of selfreflective thinking or talking about the personal past that involves forming links between elements of one’s…”

“Balancing agency and communion needs is particularly challenging during adolescence (e.g. Chandler, 1994a, 1994b; Chandler & Lalonde, 1994; Erikson, 1968; Fivush, 2011; Habermas & Bluck, 2000; Kroger & Marcia, 2011), given the myriad biological and social changes associated with this phase.”

“…be related to a reduced likelihood of developing PTSD. Age-related improvements in emotion regulation are also observed throughout middle adulthood (Gross et al., 1997), which may promote psychological adjustment following trauma expo- T hi s do cu m en t is co py ri gh te d by th e A m er ic an…”

“…special significance for the development of self and identity (Arnett, 2000; Dusek & McIntyre, 2003; Erikson & Erikson, 1997; Harter, 1998; Kroger, 2003), narrative identity (Habermas & Bluck, 2000; McLean, 2005), and autobiographical memory (Holmes & Conway, 1999; Rubin & Schulkind, 1997).”

“In considering individual-level personal identity, however, it is important to ascertain whether the ordinary person also has some sense of self as capable of wise thought and action, and if so, how such a view of self is embedded in the life story ( Habermas & Bluck, 2000; McAdams, 1990; Randall & Kenyon, 2001).”

“…gains in the organization and expression of AM in childhood (Howe, Courage & Edison, 2003); a further organization of the life story in adolescence (Habermas & Bluck, 2000; McAdams, 1990); relative stability in midlife; and declines in the details, accuracy, and specificity of AM in late life…”

“For example, Habermas and Bluck (2000) identified four types of coherence in life stories (temporal, biographical, causal, and thematic) and, discussing the development of each, showed that the life story emerges as a useful construct in adolescence.”

“…are able to tell autobiographical memories with the aid of their parents from early childhood onwards (Fivush, 2008), a narrative identity develops in adolescence (Habermas & Bluck, 2000) and continues to evolve across the adult lifespan up to late life (Kenyon, Bohlmeijer, & Randall, 2011).”

“In turn, these autobiographical memories constitute the foundation for the creation of a life story that is unique to the self (Bruner, 1990; Habermas & Bluck, 2000; McAdams, 2001; Nelson, 2003).”

“Theories of narrative identity suggests that adults make sense of their lives by constructing and telling stories about their experiences (e.g., Habermas & Bluck, 2000; Hammack, 2008; McAdams, 1995, 2001; McAdams & McLean, 2013; McAdams & Pals, 2006; McLean, Pasupathi, & Pals, 2007; Pasupathi,…”

“The SFS is unique from other more prevalent narrative coding schemes (e.g. Autobiographical Reasoning – Habermas & Bluck, 2000; Habermas & Köber, 2014; Self-Event Connections – Banks & Salmon, 2013) that have been used to study relations between autobiographical narratives and identity or…”

“Key to weaving this story of the past is the idea of autobiographical reasoning, defined as the individuals’ active reflection on their personal past to make explicit connections between their past and current selves (Habermas & Bluck, 2000).”

“Habermas and Bluck (2000) reviewed how the formations of different types of coherence in the life stories of adolescents are related to social-cognitive developments.”

“We are not interested in your memory for particular events, but more generally in how you bring together and connect the different events and periods of your life ,” (ie, autobiographical reasoning, Habermas & Bluck, 2000 ).”

“In summary, the present study found evidence for the claim made by Habermas and Bluck (2000) that the ability to compose a coherent life story only emerges in adolescence.”

“The life story, on the other hand, is believed to emerge only during adolescence and early adulthood (Habermas & Bluck, 2000).”

“When Habermas and Bluck (2000) introduced the concept of autobiographical reasoning, they hypothesized that some aspects of such reasoning were more advanced than others.”

“First, early adulthood is a time of identity development (e.g., Erikson, 1950; Fitzgerald, 1988; Habermas & Bluck, 2000).”

“The cultural concept of biography comprises, for example, conventions of how to introduce and end a life narrative ( Habermas, 2006 ), how to deal with the less well remembered parts of childhood, and what to accomplish with a biography (eg, demonstrating that one has led a virtuous life or being able to reconstruct a…”

“Narrative identity first begins to form in adolescence when individuals develop the cognitive capacity and the developmental motivation to create a narrative understanding of who they are and who they will become in the adult world (Habermas & Bluck, 2000; McAdams, 2001).”