Studying Self-Narrative Activity: The Self-Report and Verbal Expression

Abstract

The relationship between internal and verbal self-narrative activity is rarely studied directly. The general aim of this correlational study was to verify the links within and between the self-reported aspects of self-narrative activity (in terms of self-narrative inclination and internal dialogical activity) and the selected characteristics of verbal expressions obtained in response to a stimulus encouraging self-narration. The sample consisted of 73 participants (68.5% women, Mean age = 34.36), who completed online version of self-report measures (Internal Dialogical Activity Scale, The Questionnaire of Self-Narrative Inclination – Brief Version, relationship status declaration) and a narrative task involving written self-narration about an important relationship. Selected features of verbal expression (productivity, dynamics of narration, emotional tone) were assessed. Results showed for example, the greater intensification of ruminative dialogs, the higher dynamics of narration and more negative emotional tone. Multivariate linear regression analysis has shown that supportive dialogs, ruminative dialogs and identity dialogs, together with the status of the relationship, explain 35% of the variation in emotional tone of the self-narration. We conclude that: (1) internal self-narrative activity, as a phenomenon experienced by a person, is connected with performing a verbal task only in certain aspects, so equalization of these two aspects of self-narrative activity is not justified; and (2) people, for personal (biographical) and situational reasons, can tell stories with different properties on a prompted topic, thus we recommend controlling these factors in narrative studies.