Life scripts across age groups: a comparison of adolescents, young adults, and older adults.

The main purpose of the present study was to investigate cultural life scripts across three age groups. Adolescents, young adults, and older adults were asked to list the seven most important events that a typical newborn would experience in a lifetime. They also provided estimates of emotional valence and age for the life script events they listed. Results showed that there was substantial overlap in the script events listed by three groups. The adolescent and young adult scripts were more similar to each other than they were to the older adult script. Older adult scripts also differed from that of the other two groups in that they (a) were more typical, and (b) showed a stronger bump for positive events corresponding to young adulthood. The bump for positive script events emerged for events not experienced by the participants as well.