Status:: #🌱 Tags:: Links:: [[The autobiographical self]] ___ # Narrative identity theory **"Selves create stories which in turn create selves." - Dan McAdams** Narrative identity theory analyzes peoples ways of developing a self narrative of their lives and how that shapes their personality. ### According to Dan McAdams what are the three levels of understanding personality? Level 1: what are the characteristic traits of someone Level 2: what are the goals and motivations of someone Level 3: what is the self narrative someone has? How do they make meaning of experiences? ## Aspects Of Narrative Identity ### Developmental The developmental aspects of narrative identity describes how our characteristic ways of developing our self-narrative change over time. We begin to learn to tell stories of others lives and our own when we are children, and especially when we are adolescents. The way our narrative identity shapes itself is profoundly effected by the relationships in our lives like friends and parents. For example, in Eastern households stories are more often told that include interdependence rather than independence which affects the child's way of self narrative. ### Adaptive Adaptive aspects of narrative identity describe how we adapt and make sense of suffering in our lives. Do you tend to find meaning in suffering as growth or some other explanation? ### Cultural Cultural aspects of narrative identity describe how our culture impact our ways of finding narrative identity. For example, Western cultures generally promote a positive looking relationship with memory. People are taught not to be overly regretful of past decisions. In contrast, Eastern cultures generally promote a learning relationship with past memories. More often when Easterners remember things it's associated with what they learned during them. ### What characteristic ways of telling our self narrative have been shown to be healthier? Research shows that telling redemption stories as well as finding meaning in suffering helps us overcome difficult experiences. This reminds me of the [[Three things that give meaning to peoples lives according to Viktor Frankl]]. ### Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Narrative Identity There has been research to show that [[Cognitive Behavioral Therapy]] can profoundly improve our lives through influencing our narrative identity. **With cognitive behavioral therapy, we can ingrain positive self narrative thinking patterns.**