Life Script Research Articles

Czech and Slovak life scripts: the rare case of two countries that used to be one

ABSTRACT In this study, we examined cultural life scripts in two countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The cultural life script is semantic knowledge about culturally shared expectations regarding the order and timing of important life events during an idealised life course. For many decades, Slovakia and the Czech Republic were one country: Czechoslovakia. After a regime change in 1989 and the separation of the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993, their two cultures have been evolving and changing independently from one another, making these countries interesting for examining life scripts. We found that the cultural life scripts provided by Slovak and Czech participants shared 25 event categories, representing 89.3% of event categories in the Czech sample and 80.6% of event categories in the Slovak sample (including the category Other). However, participants also reported unique event categories to each culture (10.7% of unique event categories in the Czech sample and 19.4% in the Slovak sample), reflecting the specific cultural characteristics of these two separate countries. Reported events were listed in the same order they are expected to happen during the life span, were mostly positive, and showed a lifespan distribution consistent with the reminiscence bump. Participants showed higher agreement in the age estimates of positive events, compared to neutral and negative ones. Events were mostly social, in contrast to biological events. All these findings are consistent with the life script literature.

Supplemental Material for Cultural Life Scripts Across Religions: The Influences of Religion on Expectations of Life Events

Supplemental Material for Cultural Life Scripts Across Religions: The Influences of Religion on Expectations of Life Events

Queer Temporalities and Transgender Rights: A Hong Kong Case Study

This article investigates how theoretical explorations of queer time can shed light on our understanding of law. Taking transgender rights in Hong Kong as a case study, it argues that legal judgments can entrench normative temporal structures and impose tropes such as linearity, futurity, and finality onto the life scripts of trans subjects. Through close readings of the Court of Final Appeal decision in W v. Registrar of Marriages and the recent judicial review challenges that have emerged in its aftermath, it demonstrates how the cases exclude transqueer individuals who do not fit into those temporal trajectories from the realm of rights protection. It also suggests ways of thinking about the temporalities of transgender issues differently. The analysis here stages an encounter between law and literary/cultural theory, and provides a new perspective on the current state of transgender rights in Hong Kong.

The happiest and the saddest autobiographical memories and aging

The present study investigated autobiographical memories of younger, middle-aged and older adults for the events that made them the happiest and the saddest in their lives. Participants generated these memory types and provided ratings about how positive and how negative the memory makes them feel when they currently think about it, and the positivity of the emotional content of the memory. Participants provided the age at which the event happened and rated the importance and effectiveness of the event in who they have become presently, and their perceived control over the event. Results provided supporting evidence for the positivity effect, by showing that older adults felt more positive about their memories. Middle-aged adults’ ratings resembled older adults’ for the happiest and younger adults’ for the saddest memories. Two young independent raters rated all descriptions of older adults’ memories. Results showed that young raters’ positive emotion ratings were lower than older adults, for both the happiest and the saddest memories. This result indicated that older adults do not access less negatively emotional memories or describe the memories more positively, but they just evaluate these memories more positively. Results showed a reminiscence bump for the happiest but not for the saddest memories, supporting the predictions of the Life Script Account. Additionally, results provided partial and rather weak support for the Life Story Account in younger and middle-aged adults, but not in older adults. The results indicate that older adulthood may be characterized by a more positive evaluation of life experiences.

The acquisition of the cultural life script: children have a less normative and less sequential concept of the life course than adults

ABSTRACT Autobiographical remembering develops in childhood. A late-developing cognitive tool is the cultural life script. The present study aimed at exploring the beginnings of its acquisition and at replicating its acquisition in early adolescence in a Southern-European culture. Study 1 established the Portuguese normative adult cultural life script, against which the cultural life scripts provided by 6- to 16-year-olds could be compared in Study 2. The acquisition of the cultural life script in early to mid-adolescence was confirmed with multiple indicators. In 6- to 8-year olds, life script knowledge was only rudimentary. However, children still agreed highly on a set of mostly non-normative life events which they named as typical for a normal life that are not part of the adult life script. We conclude that children’s non-normative concept of life is less helpful for remembering, narrating, and planning a life than is the adult cultural life script with normative events.

Using autobiographical comics to explore life stories and school experiences of pre‐service early childhood educators

Exploring one’s life‐history in order to unearth how one’s past influences current conceptions of teaching is commonly employed in teacher education. Recognising the constructed and situated nature of autobiographical memory, this study examines autobiographical comics completed by pre‐service early childhood educators as part of the first year of pre‐service programme in Spain. Analysing the completed comics through the lens of autobiographical memory, the study found that the comics presented common general events and lifetime periods and drew on archetypal images of teaching and schools to represent their educational past. The study also found that the pre‐service students drew on a common life script representing an uncomplicated journey towards educational success. The article highlights the beliefs and assumptions that are revealed in their analysis and how teacher educators can use such resources to interrogate the social and cultural norms of the pre‐service educators.

THE NARRATIVE COMPONENT OF THE LIFE SCRIPTS ANALYSYS

The article is devoted to the analysis of awareness in life scripts based on verbalization of life experience by the subject in the process of narrative interview. A narrative approach aims to make visible phenomena which has already shaped our identity. The purpose of the article is research of narrative psychology opportunities for understanding by the individual the existing life scenario and possibilities of its freeing and expanding, building an autonomous life path, full of responsibility and creativity. It has been pointed out that according to the representatives of the transactional analysis theory the life scenario influences the life path of the personality.
 The comedy, the victory of life over death, romance, idealization of the past and traditions; tragedy, that shows the defeat of the hero and his expulsion from the society; irony which is to question all previous narrative structures were distinguished as the narrative structures of personality. It has been discussed that the study of the life scenario has its difficulties and limitations. The use of narrative interviewing creates wide opportunities for a deep understanding of the specifics of the individual’s life scenario. The use of this method allows to determine the scriptural beliefs of the person, the further analysis of which is a prerequisite for understanding and correcting the scripted life path.

Relations Between Cultural Life Scripts, Individual Life Stories, and Psychological Distress.

Cultural life scripts are shared knowledge about personal events expected to be experienced by individuals within a society and used as a framework for life story narration. Differences in cultural life scripts for individuals with depression and trauma, and their relations to anxiety, stress, and well-being, have not been investigated. Malaysian participants (N = 120) described and rated seven significant events most likely to be experienced by a prototypical infant from their culture, and seven significant events they had experienced or expected to experience in their own life. Participants then answered questionnaires about depression and trauma symptoms and about anxiety, stress, and well-being. The subclinical depression group listed less typical cultural life scripts events, whereas the subclinical post-traumatic stress disorder group listed less positive individual life story events. The findings indicate that, although individuals with depression and trauma possess knowledge of the cultural life scripts, there may be small differences in the cognitive processing of cultural life scripts and individual life story events.

Not all the same: Swedish teenage mothers' and fathers' selection into early family formation trajectories.

Previous research has focused on teenage parenthood as a single outcome, and has overlooked the wider family formation trajectory in which it is situated. In this paper, using Swedish register data and sequence analysis tools, we explore the diversity in timing and ordering of childbearing and (re)partnering events among teenage parents. We identify trajectory clusters of traditional family patterns, modern family patterns, single parenthood and re-partnering patterns. We also examine the role of resources in the family of origin for the probability of following the different types of family formation trajectories among teenage parents. Where economic resources in the family of origin is related to the type of trajectory teenage fathers follow, family structure is of greater importance for teenage mothers. The family formation trajectories of teenage parents display substantial heterogeneity, which contradicts a view that a person who has a child early in life suddenly has their life's script written.

КАЗКОТЕРАПІЯ ЯК ЕФЕКТИВНИЙ МЕТОД РОБОТИ ПСИХОТЕРАПЕВТА З ДІТЬМИ

One of the modern tendencies of the development of psychological research is scientists’ pursuit to provide practical psychologists with tool replenishment in the form of techniques, which give an opportunity to carry out psychodiagnosis and correct subject’s inner issues effectively. Traumatic situations in the families and in child care institutions cause negative children’s emotional experiences and often lead to emerging of fears and phobias. Efficiency of applying art in the context of psychological help is based on the opportunity to carry out experiments with emotions and feelings, as well as to investigate and express such notions symbolically.This article aims to find out theoretically specific features of psychotherapist work with children in the process of using fairy-tale therapy and to determine fairy-tale’s mode of application as a tool of psychotherapeutic help.Methods: theoretical and methodological analysis of fairy-tale therapy method, summary of conceptual approaches to the ways of storytelling therapist work.After the analysis of different researchers’ approaches in psychotherapeutic work of fairy-tale therapist, it was possible to determine the such basic ways of psychodiagnosis and corrective work with the help of fairy tales as:1. To tell a child a fairy tale and observe child’s reactions to it, which is achieved by numerous repeats and flat voice, using vivid speech figures and peculiar proverbs and endings.2. To ask a child to tell his/her favourite fairy tale or one which he/she remembers the most. Fairy tales which become entrenched in long-term memory are the fruit of parental message and can constitute the basis of life scripts.3. To ask a child to invent and to tell a fairy tale. It is necessary not only to observe child’s reactions, but also to conduct an analysis of a final result of a child’s creative work – a fairy tale that can be defined as a piece of art, author of which combines images not by mistake.4. Psychologist tells a child metaphorical problematic situation in a form of a fairy-tale story that ends with a question to which a child should answer.Metaphorical description is not always identical to the information it represents. Transferred information is structured by a scheme that is imposed by an image, or in other words, metaphor emphasizes only some aspects of psychotherapeutic information, negating at the same time the other ones that are not of a less importance. This aspect can be eliminated in case of a use of several metaphors. Therefore, psychotherapeutic information emerges in front of someone you talk to as a multidimensional figure – in different projections, from different points of view.Fairy-tale therapy constitutes an educational system, which is aimed to pass on the life experience, represents the way of interaction with inner self and therapy with special a fairy tale environment. Fairy-tale therapy as a method does not have age limitations for applying. Child’s storytelling provides grounds for a psychologist for the analysis, indicates necessary actions, and aims at preventing or mitigating the obstacles in the process of such therapy. Thus, the main purpose of psychodiagnosis with the help of fairytale therapy is to find out individual deviations in the development of a child for the appropriate selection of corrective tools and tasks statements

Cultural life scripts of Japanese adolescents

SummaryA life script develops from adolescence and is influenced by culture. However, few cultural differences have been identified previously, and only a few studies have investigated the life scripts of adolescents. This is the first study to examine the life scripts of Japanese junior high and high school students. Our results identified some characteristically Japanese life events that were shared by the students, such as the “high school entrance exam,” “falling out with friends or family,” “club activities,” and the “Seijinshiki ceremony.” Peaks for particular life events in particular age groups were observed in all groups for events with “mixed” valence; these had never have been reported by previous studies. Some gender‐specific and developmental differences were also identified.

Factors that modulate the intergenerational transmission of autobiographical memory from older to younger generations

ABSTRACTThe present study examined the intergenerational factors in transmitting autobiographical memories from one generation to the next. Older adults from Beijing, China reported a collection of personally important autobiographical memories and their middle-aged children recalled important parental memories. The parent-child dyads independently recalled and provided ratings of mnemonic characteristics for the memories. Across generations, consensus memories, which refer to the memories that both parents and children considered as important in the parent’s life, were characterised by the substantial material change that the events brought about in their lives. While parent-child interaction affected the number of events passed onto children, it only affected the number of script-divergent events that were not recorded in the life script of a culture, but not the number of script-consistent events. In addition, children whose parents were rusticated and relocated to rural areas during the Cultural Revolution remembered more historical memories than children whose parents were not rusticated. The findings shed light on the process that one generation gains the biographical knowledge and historical experience of a prior generation. Theoretical implications are discussed.

The Little Professor: Reflection on the Structure, Development and Evolution of the Adult in the Child

According to the concept of the Life Script, developed by Eric Berne, the fate of each individual is sketched in the early years of life. The subdivision of Child Ego State, known as Adult in the Child or Little Professor, is responsible for decoding the world throughout intuition and analogical thought and, thus, in one way or another, having physical and emotional survival guaranteed. The purpose of this article is to qualify and recognise the Adult in the Child and its relevance in the construction of personality trait, by studying the anatomical, physiological and emotional scenario in which the Adult in the Child develops itself. The author suggests that the peculiar stamina and wisdom held in the Adult in the Child may be present in adult life in a positive manner, even if the events that structured it were dramatic.

Psycholinguistic Aspects of Realisation of Acme Potential of Life Scripts of Ukrainian Writers-Emigrants

Introduction. This article has been devoted to the research of the issue of realization of psycholinguistic resources of acme potential of the Ukrainian writers and scientists whose activities are connected with generation of texts, in another cultural environment. So as to study the peculiarities of this process, which is the aim of the article, the main focus has been put on the empirical research of the correlation between the socio-cultural adaptation of Ukrainian emigrants and the indicators of acmeological and psycholinguistic resources and on revealing differences in the indicators of resources and adaptation of Ukrainian emigrants who deal with writing and scientific activities in comparison with emigrants who do not.
 Materials & Methods.The life sense orientation, psychological position, and the sociocultural adaptation have been identified as the main indicators of acme realization of emigrants. Accordingly, the diagnostic instruments of the study included the Life Sense Orientation Test by D. Leontev, which is an adapted version of Purpose-In-Life Test by J. Crumbaugh & L. Maholick, the “Fullness of Life” methodology by J. Powell and the Questionnaire of a Personality Adaptation to New Socio-Cultural Environment by L. Yankovskiy.
 Results. It has been confirmed that the desire to self-realization of the emigrants depends on interest and emotional fullness of life, self-imagination and acceptance of others. The statistically confirmed results of the research have confirmed the differences between the indicators of resources and adaptation of the Ukrainian emigrants conducting writing and scientific activities, compared to the emigrants not conducting such activities. It has been stressed out that the Ukrainian emigrants generating texts have more harmonious type of adaptation, and more often perceive the process of life as full of sense compared to those emigrants whose activities do not include narrativization. The received results testify the importance of development of acme technologies for the Ukrainian emigrants through a prism of psycholinguistics methodology.

RETROSPECTIVE LIFE HISTORY SURVEY REVEALED AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY BUMP

The reminiscence bump is a well-documented autobiographical memory phenomenon characterized by middle-aged and older adults reporting a disproportionate number of memories from adolescence and early adulthood (Rubin, Wetzler, & Nebes, 1986). It is typically assessed through either cue word or important memory techniques. The Life History Mail Survey (LHMS) in the Health and Retirement Study affords unique data to investigate this phenomenon among a representative US sample of older adults. At the beginning of the LHMS, participants (N=3088, M age=70, range 50-107) completed a calendar noting the important things that happened to them in seven life decades, starting with ages 0-9 and ending by ages 70-79 (or their actual age). For each life period, we coded the number of events respondents reported. We observed significantly more memories reported for the age decade 20-29, compared with other life periods (80% vs 47-66%). Our results are consistent with previous findings in the autobiographical memory literature. Follow-up analyses evaluated existing theoretical accounts of the bump, such as cultural life script theory which suggests that life events occur in a specific order and are characterized by a prototypical life course. For example, we determined whether respondents’ sociodemographic characteristics, such as age cohort, gender, marital and educational histories (information available in LHMS) influenced the size and temporal location of the reminiscence bump. We also analyzed the content of reported important life events to investigate whether types of events included in each decade of life are consistent with the cultural life script account of the phenomenon.

Exploring underexposed stories: the experienced lifecourse of financially excluded older adults

AbstractTo gain insights into vulnerable lifecourses and give a voice to those often underrepresented in quantitative research, this study examines the life stories (past, present and future) of 19 financially excluded older adults using an adapted version of McAdams’ life-story interview scheme. Although these life stories demonstrate an accumulation of many disadvantages and an uncertain future because of current financial situations, the stories also reflect the generativity, resilience, coping strategies and agency of financially excluded older adults. We demonstrate how the experienced lifecourse is built around both negative and positive turning points and transitions which go beyond the classical education–work–retirement triumvirate, and how socio-cultural life scripts are used as a framework to build one's own life story in order to achieve continuity. The discussion highlights the potential for deploying the life-story method as a qualitative resource for providing individualised care.

A positive Living-in-History effect: the case of the fall of the Berlin Wall

ABSTRACTResearch has shown that individuals use a combination of cultural life script events and historical events when dating personal memories, providing evidence for a cultural life script effect and Living-in-History (LiH) effect on the temporal organisation of autobiographical memory. Yet, in contrast to life script events, the LiH effect has only been found for negative events such as war or natural disasters. Therefore, this study tested whether a positive historical event, here the fall of the Berlin Fall, also elicits a LiH effect and whether this effect would differ due to the subsequent changes in life. Comparing West and East Germans, we found a moderate LiH effect for the fall of the Berlin Wall in East Germans but not in West Germans. Yet, the LiH effect in East Germans did not relate to the perceived change in life or the valence of the historical event. Additionally, this study replicated the finding that life script events serve as temporal landmarks when navigating through one’s autobiographical timeline.

“Theodora” Way Station: How The Psychological Concept of Life Script Mirrors Neurocognitive Memory of the Future

This article illustrates the relationship between the contemporary understanding of the human capacity for prospection—the representation of possible futures—and the notion of life scripts. Prospection is viewed as a vehicle for transgenerational trauma transmission and as a means of organizing and predicting future experience in line with “memories of the future” based on clients’ historical experience. The authors argue that episcript content and its effects constitute the scene, and the process of scene construction relates to family-specific behaviors. The semantic scaffolding that guides the transmission is related to difficulties in psychosocial functioning. The template representation of the future in the long-term memory of people who are yet to receive the episcript may be represented by a neural network showing minimal activity, which can be compared to an empty station waiting for a train, the train in this instance symbolizing the episcript.

A systematic review of the relationship between perceived life script event age and valence across the life span.

Drawing on life script theory, we examined the relationship between the perceived age and valence of life script events across the life span. A review of the life script literature was conducted based on 14 studies, comprising 28 samples from 12 countries, and encompassing 4,012 participants. A total of 135 life script events between birth and death were identified-roughly four times the number of such events reported in any single sample. As predicted, the relationship between mean perceived life script age and valence for positive life script events during the bump period (i.e., between the ages of 10 and 30 years) was positive in direction within 15 of 18 relevant samples; however, this association was not statistically significant based on the aggregated life script event information. In contrast, consistent with predictions, the age-valence relationship for all life script events across the entire life span was negative in direction in each of the relevant samples and based on the aggregated life script event information. It appears that the life script contains at least 2 developmental stories concerning beliefs about experiences of key events and transitions: Life events get increasingly positive during younger adulthood, but decreasingly positive across the entire life span. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Identity Narrative and Its Role in Biological Survival: Implications for Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy

ABSTRACTIn this article, we propose the term identity narrative (IdN) to define an implicit emotional and cognitive framework that serves as an unconscious scaffolding for the gradual development of autobiographical memory. We distinguish preverbal IdN from narrative identity, a term previously used in the philosophical literature. Unlike narrative identity, which refers to conscious life scripts, IdN is unconscious and constitutes a contemporary neuropsychological conceptualization of the unconscious. Within autobiographical memory, IdN has a stabilizing function providing individual predictability and, hence, social stability. IdN begins prior to language acquisition and has an evolutionary significance. It is consolidated by neurohormonal mechanisms, influences and is influenced by attachment, and molds the manner in which autobiographical memory is recalled. It participates in the emergence of self and identity. IdN is reshaped throughout life by both bottom-up (implicit “predictive cycle” paradigm) and top-down acquisitions that include paradigm shift/sudden new insights, experiences with high emotional valence, repetition and practicing, and prolonged exposure. In this way, IdN, autobiographical memory, and the language brain are parts of a larger biological substrate of human social affiliations.