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. 2009 Mar;96(3):679-89.
doi: 10.1037/a0014611.

Narrating personality change

Jennifer Lodi-Smith  1 , Aaron C Geise, Brent W Roberts, Richard W Robins
Affiliations

Narrating personality change

Jennifer Lodi-Smith et al. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2009 Mar.

Abstract

The present research investigated the longitudinal relations between personality traits and narratives. Specifically, the authors examined how individual differences in 170 college students' narratives of personality change (a) were predicted by personality traits at the beginning of college, (b) related to actual changes and perceived changes in personality traits during college, and (c) related to changes in emotional health during college. Individual differences in narratives of personality trait change told in the 4th year of college fell into 2 dimensions: affective processing, characterized by positive emotions, and exploratory processing, characterized by meaning making and causal processing. Conscientious, open, and extraverted freshmen told exploratory stories of change as seniors. Emotionally healthy freshmen told stories of change that were high in positive affect. Both positive affective and exploratory stories corresponded to change in emotional stability and conscientiousness during college above and beyond the effects of perceived changes in these traits. In addition, both positive affective and exploratory narratives corresponded to increases in emotional health during college independent of the effects of changes in personality traits. These findings improve our understanding of how individuals conceptualize their changing identity over time.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Changes in emotional stability (ES) and conscientiousness (C) at different levels of affective processing. Error bars reflect the standard error of the mean for each group.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Changes in emotional stability (ES) and conscientiousness (C) at different levels of exploratory processing. Error bars reflect the standard error of the mean for each group.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Changes in emotional health (EH) at different levels of affective processing. Error bars reflect the standard error of the mean for each group.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Changes in emotional health (EH) at different levels of exploratory processing. Error bars reflect the standard error of the mean for each group.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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