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

“At the heart of this theory is the construct of autobiographical reasoning (Habermas & Bluck, 2000; Habermas & Kober, 2015), a process of reflection on past experiences to make sense of the current self.”

“This approach is related to the first one in the sense that reflecting on past events or talking about them with others is seen as an important way in which people develop a life story or a narrative identity/personality (e.g., Habermas & Bluck, 2000; McLean & Breen, 2009).”

“Ideologies, narratives, and “self-portraits” are ways to help create and maintain harmony, and the higher the need for harmony the more likely that people will make use of these tools for self-regulation (see Habermas and Bluck 2000; Harter and Monsour 1992).”

“Initially, children recall single events that have particular significance in their life (Habermas & Bluck, 2000; McAdams, 2006) and eventually develop the capacity to make causal connexions between events in their life unrelated in immediate time (Bruner, 1986).”

“Habermas and Bluck (2000) argue that narrative structures play an important role in episodic memory because biographical experiences are cognitively organized in the form of”

“As life stories help people interpret their ongoing experiences (Habermas & Bluck, 2000; McAdams, 2008), we predict that, by rewriting their stories as a Hero ’ s Journey, participants should be better able to see elements of the archetypal narrative in their own lives.”

“One particularly important type of autobiographical meaning-making is autobiographical reasoning, which includes self-event connections (Habermas & Bluck, 2000; Habermas & Paha, 2001).”

“…allow for higher levels of self-reflection and perspective taking (Harter, 1999), and increased cognitive skills allow for more temporally coherent and causally complex narratives (Fivush, Habermas, Zaman, & Waters, 2011; Habermas & Bluck, 2000; Habermas & Paha, 2001; Reese et al., 2011).”

“In adolescence, individuals begin to abstract meaning from their experiences with increasing frequency and sophistication (e.g., Fivush, Habermas, Waters, & Zaman, 2011; Habermas & Bluck, 2000; Habermas & Reese, 2015).”

“Adolescence is a developmental period that is key to the aetiology and onset of depression (Reinherz, Giaconia, Hauf, Wasserman, & Silverman, 1999 ) as the self-concept evolves and consolidates, emotion regulation skills are substantively developed and complex social problem-solving skills are learned (Habermas & Bluc…”

“This meaning-making process is even more important in developmental ages, as adolescence is, characterized by self and identity definition and growth of autobiographical process skills (Habermas and Bluck, 2000).”

“Thus, by activating the processes of self-biographical remembering and understanding, I can recollect parts of my life story (Habermas & Bluck, 2000) uncovered as a narrative (Brewer, 1999) and containing specific and concrete details (Rubin, 1996).”

“It has been shown that acquired autobiographical knowledge is organized during adolescence [43–46] and shapes the sense of personal identity [42,44].”

“For example both Coleman (1999) and Habermas and Bluck (2000) have emphasised the importance of coherence as an essential characteristic of an integrated and satisfying life story.”

“As adolescents become cognitively capable of complex perspective taking, hypothetical reasoning, and reflection on internal states, the ability to think in more intricate ways about one’s individual place in the world emerges (see Habermas & Bluck, 2000, for a review).”

“…to various aspects of personality, including identity formation (e.g., McAdams, 1985, 2001; Wang, 2004), psychological growth and development (e.g., Habermas & Bluck, 2000; Thorne, 2000), wellbeing (e.g., Beike & Landoll, 2000; King, 2001; King & Miner, 2000; Pennebaker, 1997), as well as motives…”

“Note that, although their definition of coherence only captures some aspects of life narrative coherence as suggested by Habermas and Bluck (2000), there is some overlap between these two approaches (see Reese et al., 2011).”

“One reason for the higher frequency of chapters and specific memories in young adulthood is that individuals begin constructing personal life stories by tying together different aspects of personality to achieve a coherent identity (Habermas & Bluck, 2000; McAdams, 2001).”

“Further, research suggests that the cognitive abilities required for each function may have different developmental trajectories (Habermas & Bluck, 2000).”

“…experiences that exemplify how one has remained the same, as well as explaining how one has changed over time (Chandler, Lalonde, Sokol, & Hallett, 2003; Habermas & Bluck, 2000; Habermas & Paha, 2001; McLean, 2008; McLean, Breen, & Fournier, 2010; Pasupathi et al., 2007; Pasupathi & Mansour, 2006).”

“The life story adds a diachronic or biographical dimension to the person concept and integrates memories of specific events and biographical facts with the development of the person within the framework of a life (Habermas & Bluck, 2000).”

“Habermas and Bluck (2000) and McAdams (2001) propose that coherence in the self-concept is largely sustained by organizing elements of experience over time into cause-and-effect relationships.”

“Temporal information also has a prominent role in theories of autobiographical memory (eg, Nelson & Fivush, 2004 ; see also Habermas & Bluck, 2000 ), which can be defined as episodic memories that are personally relevant (see Bauer, 2007 ).”

“As a result, what Habermas and Bluck (2000) termed ‘‘getting a life’’ through the crafting of identity narratives during the adolescence years becomes influenced, but not dominated, by group memberships and group-based differences.”

“The ability to recollect events at will and to develop a detailed and well-structured narrative of past experience develops gradually throughout childhood (eg, Nelson & Fivush, 2004 ) with the ability to construct a coherent life story not developing until adolescence (Habermas & Bluck, 2000 ).”

“(To pick just one illustrative example, the overview of elements or dimensions of global story coherence offered by Habermas & Bluck, 2000, includes “referential, spatial, temporal, causal, and thematic coherence,” as well as the extent to which a story conforms to relevant cultural models.”

“The journey provides a helpful diachronic narrative template that knits together individual role and career transitions to bridge past and present, whose changing contours and contexts are given explanatory coherence by an overarching life story (Habermas and Bluck, 2000).”

“For example, the ability to organize one’s personal life course into a life story with turning points and overarching abstract themes is assumed to develop only in adolescence (Habermas & Bluck, 2000) along with the emergence of an adult identity (Erikson, 1950).”

“On the one hand, at age 17, she was just beginning to “get a life” [Habermas & Bluck, 2000] through the initial construction of a life story that could make meaning of her social and political context.”

“…are commonly expected to engage in cultivating an endurable sense of MIL as one of the critical developmental tasks through elaborating valued sense of identities and beliefs, their unique niches, and lifelong purposes (Arnett, 2000; Baxter Magolda, 1992; Habermas & Bluck, 2000; McLean, 2005).”

“The life story emerges in adolescence (Habermas & Bluck, 2000) and the life story schema (Bluck & Habermas, 2000) has been postulated as the highest level of organisation in autobiographical memory (Conway et al., 2004).”

“Second, chapters function as sections of the life story and the construction of life stories are thought to be under influence of culturally transmitted knowledge (Habermas, 2007 ; Habermas & Bluck, 2000 ; McAdams & Pals, 2006 ).”

“The structural mechanism by which individuals come to make meaning of their ideological identifications and personal experiences is the personal narrative (Cohler, 1982), a life story that begins to be constructed in adolescence (Habermas & Bluck, 2000; McAdams, 1990, 1993, 1996).”

“I would like to thank Kristofer GroÈ nlund for practical assistance and data scoring and Anders Kjellberg and Terry Hartig for their comments. of our experiences, our life stories (Habermas & Bluck, 2000).”

“(Habermas & Bluck, 2000; McAdams, 1993; Wang, 2013).”

“Finally, the extent to which individuals craft a coherent story about their experiences is regarded as a foundational element of narratives, one intimately associated with their ability to support well-being (e.g., Adler et al., 2008; Habermas & Bluck, 2000).”

“Research suggests that beginning in adolescence and continuing throughout adulthood, self event connections are critical to the formation of a selfdefining life story or narrative identity (Habermas & Bluck, 2000; McAdams, 2001; Pasupathi et al., 2007; Singer, 2004).”

“It is critical for identity and psychological wellbeing, especially during adolescence and emerging adulthood when identity is being formed (Habermas & Bluck, 2000; McAdams, 2001).”

“This narrative framework facilitates thematic, causal, and temporal connections between the experience and the self (Habermas & Bluck, 2000) which fosters self-regulation, relations, and understanding (Fivush, 2011).”

“Society explicitly and implicitly urges young adults to ‘get a life’ (Habermas & Bluck, 2000), as it is the time to make decisions about one’s career, marriage and family.”

“Global coherence, which is the product of these four types of coherence, distinguishes life story memories from other memories because these memories integrate the life story narrative with the sense of self (Habermas & Bluck, 2000).”

“According to Habermas and Bluck (2000 ; see McAdams, this issue), a consistent narrative is acquired only during adolescence and is based on there being causal coherence, temporal coherence, the cultural concept of autobiography and thematic coherence in stories.”

“…of the life story is achieved by establishing temporal order of events, explaining causal connections between events, and evaluating how events have influenced the self, which is also referred to as meaning-making (Habermas & Bluck, 2000; McLean, 2005; Singer, Blagov, Berry, & Oost, 2013).”

“This ability develops in late adolescence (Habermas & Bluck, 2000; McAdams, 1988): With the emergence of abstract thinking (Piaget, 1965), one can engage in auto- biographical reasoning (Habermas & Bluck, 2000; also narrative processing, Singer & Bluck, 2001).”

“That is, it may aid in self-definition (Habermas & Bluck, 2000; McLean & Thorne, 2005), developing and maintaining social bonds (Nelson & Fivush, 2000), and directing future behavior (Pillemer, 1998) in individuals of all ages (Webster & Cappeliez, 1993).”

“During adolescence, narratives take on a richer, more organized form, as single events are connected to create a more coherent story with an overarching theme (Fivush et al., 1995; Habermas & Bluck, 2000).”

“Habermas and Bluck (2000) view the “cultural concept of biography” as a template or normative grid that is internalized in late childhood and early adolescence that outlines the prevailing cultural expectations for a life story (755). It provides an instrumental guideline as people learn how to tell their personal lif…”

“The self-function concerns the use of autobiographical memories in order to promote self-continuity, provide material for the self-concept, and basically tell us who we are (eg, Baddeley, 1988 ; Conway, 1996 ; Fivush, 1988 ; Habermas & Bluck, 2000 ).”

“…self-blame for uncontrollable circumstances and finding adaptive paths forward, is advised as an important focus for clinical intervention (Davis, Nolen-Hoeksema, & Larson, 1998; Habermas & Bluck, 2000; Holman & Silver, 1998; Pennebaker, Mayne, & Francis, 1997; Rutter, 2000b; Taylor & Brown, 1988).”

“…given that adolescence is proposed to be the time at which the emergence of sociocognitive abilities facilitate the formation of life stories (Habermas & Bluck, 2000; McAdams, 1996), sampling of this age group might provide insight into whether perceptions of the life stories and global…”

“Indeed, emerging adulthood is a critical developmental stage in which life stories are forged (Habermas & Bluck, 2000).”

“These narratives can take the form of specific memories, elaborated fantasies, and even full-scale autobiographies (Habermas & Bluck, 2000; Singer, in press; Singer & Bluck, 2001; Singer & Salovey, 1993).”

“Unlike life review, life reflection is not confined to old age but is a lifelong process starting in adolescence (cf. Habermas & Bluck, 2000).”

“…task when they develop – during adolescence – their own narratives and biographical life stories, as well as outlooks in relation to certain life projects (Habermas & Bluck, 2000) which are, at times, in conflict with the practices and feelings of the adult members of the family unit.”

“[22] By the time they reach high school, however, this has changed.”

“…& O’Rourke, 2006; Cappeliez, O’Rourke, & Chaudhury, 2005; Gibson, 2004; Haight & Haight, 2007), self-development (e.g., Fivush & Haden, 2003; Habermas & Bluck, 2000; Pasupathi & Mansour, 2006), and narrative gerontology (e.g., Kenyon, Clark, & de Vries, 2001; Ruth & Kenyon, 1996) among…”