Development and Validation of the Narrative Identity Self-Evaluation Scale (NISE).

In narrative identity research, variables are typically captured through detailed content-coding of personal narratives. Yet, alternative methods have been suggested, notably self-report scales, because they capture a participant's own interpretation of their personal narratives, and because they are efficient to administer as a supplement to more labor-intensive coding methods. This study developed and validated the Narrative Identity Self-Evaluation (NISE) questionnaire.

Beyond "post," "traumatic," "growth," and prediction in research on posttraumatic growth.

Thirty years after the introduction of posttraumatic growth (PTG), research on the concept has expanded dramatically. Novel theoretical perspectives included in this special issue, however, demonstrate that nearly every element of PTG requires revision. "Post" implies a definitive before and after adversity that simply does not exist, either empirically or in the everyday navigation of adversity, especially for marginalized people.

"Identity theft" in : impact of positive genetic test results and risk-reducing interventions.

Individuals harboring breast cancer gene 1/2 () pathogenic variants are at increased lifetime risk for developing cancer. Learning one's carrier status is a watershed moment that can result in psychological distress, anxiety, and depression, as well as feelings of vulnerability and stigma. However, emotional and coping responses to learning one's carrier status and after risk-reducing interventions (i.

A guide for social science journal editors on easing into open science.

Journal editors have a large amount of power to advance open science in their respective fields by incentivising and mandating open policies and practices at their journals. The Data PASS Journal Editors Discussion Interface (JEDI, an online community for social science journal editors: www.dpjedi.

Barriers to mental health service use among people with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Purpose/objective: The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing health inequities for people with disabilities (PWD), including disparities in mental health needs and service use. The present study investigated prospective predisposing, enabling, and illness-related correlates of mental health service need and use among PWD during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Research Method/design: Data were collected online at two time points: October-December 2020 and October-December 2021.

Narrative identity among people with disabilities in the United States during the Covid-19 pandemic: The interdependent self.

This study examines narrative identity among a large, diverse sample of people with disabilities (PWDs) in the United States during the "second wave" of the Covid-19 pandemic (October-December 2020). The study relied on abductive analyses, combining a purely inductive phase of inquiry followed by two rounds of investigation that filtered inductive insights through three theoretical lenses: social-ecological theory, the theory of narrative identity, and perspectives from the interdisciplinary field of disability studies. The central result was the identification of a particular configuration of self, one that was demonstrably interdependent with both immediate interpersonal contexts and with broader cultural contexts.

Psychobiographies of social change agents: Introduction to the Special Issue.

This Special Issue of Journal of Personality, focused on psychobiographies of social change agents, aims to make contributions to the field in terms of content, method, and process. The content of the issue is focused on understanding people who powerfully impact their world, from eminent global leaders to everyday change agents. The contributions to the Special Issue are unified by their adoption of psychobiographical methods, though as a set they offer both excellent representations of common psychobiographical approaches as well as vital innovations in this tradition.

Predicting depression and anxiety among adults with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Purpose/objective: Emerging research has highlighted sources of magnified stress and trauma for people with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic, as compared to others in the general population. However, little research has examined the mental health impact of the pandemic on people with disabilities in relation to disability-related stigma, social isolation, and demographic characteristics. The present study therefore sought to identify predictors of depression and anxiety symptoms among U.

A conceptual review of identity integration across adulthood.

Though Erikson recognized identity development as a lifelong project, most research on identity has focused on adolescents and emerging adults. Less is known about how the identity formed in adolescence is maintained and adapted across the adult life span. The purpose of the present paper is to provide a conceptual review and elaboration of Erikson's (1968) theory focused on identity integration, a construct that is particularly relevant to adult identity development.

Narrative Identity and Personality Disorder: an Empirical and Conceptual Review.

Purpose Of Review: Identity is one of the key domains that is disturbed in people manifesting personality disorder (PD). Within the field of personality psychology, there is a robust approach to studying identity focused on narrative identity which has been largely overlooked in studying PD. In this paper, a systematic review was conducted of studies published in the past decade that focused on how individuals manifesting personality pathology craft their narrative identity.

Identity integration in people with acquired disabilities: A qualitative study.

Objective: This qualitative investigation focused on identity integration in a sample of individuals who acquired physical disabilities in adulthood. It also argues for the importance and ethics of these methods in the broader field of scholarship on personality change following adversity.

Method: Thirteen adults participated in the study.

The empirical structure of narrative identity: The initial Big Three.

A robust empirical literature suggests that individual differences in the thematic and structural aspects of life narratives are associated with and predictive of psychological well-being. However, 1 limitation of the current field is the multitude of ways of capturing these narrative features, with little attention to overarching dimensions or latent factors of narrative that are responsible for these associations with well-being. In the present study we uncovered a reliable structure that accommodates commonly studied features of life narratives in a large-scale, multi-university collaborative effort.

Stress resilience: Narrative identity may buffer the longitudinal effects of chronic caregiving stress on mental health and telomere shortening.

Background: Chronic caregiving stress may accelerate biological aging; however, the ability to integrate the meaning of caregiving through self-awareness, adaptation, and growth can buffer the negative effects of stress. Narrative researchers have shown that people who coherently integrate difficult experiences into their life story tend to have better mental health, but no prior study has examined the prospective association between narrative identity and biological indicators, such as telomere length. We tested whether narrative identity might be prospectively associated with resilience to long-term parenting stress, depressive symptoms, and protection from telomere shortening, especially among caregivers.

Personality Constructs and Paradigms in the Alternative DSM-5 Model of Personality Disorder.

The DSM-5 Section III alternative model for personality disorders (AMPD) is a personality disorder (PD) nosology based on severity of personality dysfunction and pathological traits. We examined the degree to which the personality constructs identified by McAdams and Pals (2006; dispositional traits, characteristic adaptations, narrative identity) and the paradigms of personality assessment described by Wiggins (2003; psychodynamic, interpersonal, personological, multivariate, empirical) are represented within the AMPD. Nine raters expert with the AMPD and personality evaluated elements of Criterion A and the 25 trait facets of Criterion B for presence of type and degree of personality constructs and paradigms, as well as level of inference.

Bringing the (disabled) body to personality psychology: A case study of Samantha.

Objective: Personality psychology has largely ignored the experiences of people with disabilities. This article strives to bring the thriving, interdisciplinary field of disability studies to personality psychology via a case study of Samantha (N = 1). Samantha feels that she grew up as a hearing person who could not hear and is now a deaf person who can hear.

The Incremental Validity of Narrative Identity in Predicting Well-Being: A Review of the Field and Recommendations for the Future.

Grounded in four theoretical positions-structural, cognitive, phenomenological, and ethical-the present review demonstrates the empirical evidence for the incremental validity of narrative identity as a cross-sectional indicator and prospective predictor of well-being, compared with other individual difference and situational variables. In doing so, we develop an organizational framework of four categories of narrative variables: (a) motivational themes, (b) affective themes, (c) themes of integrative meaning, and (d) structural elements. Using this framework, we detail empirical evidence supporting the incremental association between narrative identity and well-being, a case that is strongest for motivational, affective, and integrative meaning themes.

Variation in narrative identity is associated with trajectories of mental health over several years.

This article presents 2 longitudinal studies designed to assess the relationship between variability in narrative identity and trajectories of mental health over several years. In Study 1, core scenes from 89 late-mid-life adults' life stories were assessed for several narrative themes. Participants' mental health and physical health were assessed concurrently with the narratives and annually for the subsequent 4 years.

Narrative meaning making is associated with sudden gains in psychotherapy clients' mental health under routine clinical conditions.

Objective: The present study had two aims: (a) to replicate previous findings regarding the characteristics of sudden gains (SGs) in psychotherapy under routine clinical conditions and (b) to examine whether clients' narrative meaning-making processes were associated with SGs in mental health.

Method: 54 psychotherapy clients completed the Systemic Therapy Inventory of Change (Pinsof et al., 2009) and wrote private narratives prior to beginning treatment and between every session for 12 assessment points over the course of psychotherapy for a variety of presenting problems.

The distinguishing characteristics of narrative identity in adults with features of borderline personality disorder: an empirical investigation.

While identity disturbance has long been considered one of the defining features of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), the present study marks only the third empirical investigation to assess it and the first to do so from the perspective of research on narrative identity. Drawing on the rich tradition of studying narrative identity, the present study examined identity disturbance in a group of 40 mid-life adults, 20 with features of BPD and a matched sample of 20 without BPD. Extensive life story interviews were analyzed for a variety of narrative elements and the themes of agency, communion fulfillment (but not communion), and narrative coherence significantly distinguished the stories of those people with features of BPD from those without the disorder.

Clients' and therapists' stories about psychotherapy.

This article provides an overview of the emerging field of research on clients' stories about their experiences in psychotherapy. The theory of narrative identity suggests that individuals construct stories about their lives in order to provide the self with a sense of purpose and unity. Psychotherapy stories serve both psychological functions.

Mixed emotional experience is associated with and precedes improvements in psychological well-being.

Background: The relationships between positive and negative emotional experience and physical and psychological well-being have been well-documented. The present study examines the prospective positive relationship between concurrent positive and negative emotional experience and psychological well-being in the context of psychotherapy.

Methods: 47 adults undergoing psychotherapy completed measures of psychological well-being and wrote private narratives that were coded by trained raters for emotional content.

Living into the story: agency and coherence in a longitudinal study of narrative identity development and mental health over the course of psychotherapy.

Narrative identity is the internalized, evolving story of the self that each person crafts to provide his or her life with a sense of purpose and unity. A proliferation of empirical research studies focused on narrative identity have explored its relationship with psychological well-being. The present study is the first prospective, multiwave longitudinal investigation to examine short-term personality change via an emphasis on narrative identity as it relates to mental health.