Lodi-Smith Jennifer, Geise Aaron C, Roberts Brent W, Robins Richard W
Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA.
J Pers Soc Psychol. 2009 Mar;96(3):679-89. doi: 10.1037/a0014611.
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.
本研究调查了人格特质与叙事之间的纵向关系。具体而言，作者考察了170名大学生人格变化叙事中的个体差异：(a) 如何由大学入学时的人格特质预测；(b) 与大学期间人格特质的实际变化和感知变化有何关联；(c) 与大学期间情绪健康的变化有何关联。大学四年级时讲述的人格特质变化叙事中的个体差异分为两个维度：情感加工，以积极情绪为特征；探索性加工，以意义建构和因果加工为特征。尽责、开放和外向的大一新生在大四时讲述探索性的变化故事。情绪健康的大一新生讲述的变化故事具有高度的积极情感。积极情感故事和探索性故事均与大学期间情绪稳定性和尽责性的变化相关，且超出了这些特质感知变化的影响。此外，积极情感叙事和探索性叙事均与大学期间情绪健康的提升相关，且独立于人格特质变化的影响。这些发现增进了我们对个体如何随时间概念化自身不断变化的身份的理解。
