Agency and Communion in Brief Entire Life Narratives Across the Life Span.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

The evolving life story is integral to personality, and motivational themes are central features of the life story. Personality implies individual differences that are relatively stable over time, but still allow for developmental processes. This study explored both long-term stability and developmental change in thematic content of the life story.

Method

Fulfilled and unfulfilled agency and communion were studied in brief entire life narratives across 4 measurements in 12 years in a cohort-sequential design including six cohorts (n = 172; age 8-77).

Results

Fulfilled agency and communion, as well as unfulfilled agency exhibited moderate rank order stability over 4 and 8 years, fulfilled communion showed even a modest 12-year stability, whereas unfulfilled c

SUBMITTER: Kemper NF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12421715 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature