Abstract
Individuals develop a narrative identity through constructing and internalizing an evolving life story composed of significant autobiographical memories. The ability to narrate these memories in a coherent manner has been related to well-being, identity functioning, and personality pathology. Previous studies have particularly focused on coherence of life story narratives, overlooking coherence of single event memories that make up the life story. The present study addressed this gap by examining associations between narrative coherence of single turning point memories and psychological well-being, identity functioning, and personality disorder (PD) symptoms among 333 Belgian emerging adults (72.1% female; Mage = 22.56, SD = 3.13, age range = 18–30). In addition, the present study tested whether narrative coherence could predict unique variance in PD symptoms above and beyond identity and interpersonal functioning, both considered key components of personality pathology. The findings showed that narrative coherence was not significantly related to psychological well-being, but yielded significant negative associations with disturbed identity functioning and antisocial PD symptoms. Furthermore, narrative coherence predicted unique variance in antisocial PD symptoms above and beyond identity functioning, but did not predict unique variance in borderline and antisocial PD symptoms above and beyond both identity and interpersonal functioning. Collectively, these findings suggest that narrative incoherence within single event memories might be characteristic for disturbed identity functioning and antisocial personality pathology.
Highlights
Identity formation is a fundamental psychosocial task that is characteristic of adolescence and emerging adulthood (Erikson, 1968; Arnett, 2006)
Narrative incoherence has been linked to borderline personality disorder (BPD; Adler et al, 2012; Jørgensen et al, 2012; Lind et al, 2019b), a clinical disorder marked by severe identity disturbance (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013)
Narrative incoherence might be a deficit in other personality disorders (PDs) as well, as consensus has emerged and research has confirmed that identity disturbance is characteristic of all PDs (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013; see Widiger et al, 2018 for a review)
Summary
Identity formation is a fundamental psychosocial task that is characteristic of adolescence and emerging adulthood (Erikson, 1968; Arnett, 2006). In this latter study, identity-relevant information was not assessed by means of an independent identity measure, but was only inherently included in the narrative (Waters and Fivush, 2015) Building on these results, Vanden Poel and Hermans (2019) examined the relation between narrative coherence of single event memories and identity using an independent measure for identity that considers both adaptive and disturbed identity functioning. Vanden Poel and Hermans (2019) examined the relation between narrative coherence of single event memories and identity using an independent measure for identity that considers both adaptive and disturbed identity functioning They reported that narrative coherence is positively associated with consolidated identity functioning, which refers to feeling integrated and whole, experiencing a high degree of self-continuity, and feeling confident about who you are (Kaufman et al, 2015). The associations between narrative coherence and PD symptomatology may be dependent upon narrative valence and gender as well
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