Life Script Research Articles

The future is bright and predictable: The development of prospective life stories across childhood and adolescence.

When do children develop the ability to imagine their future lives in terms of a coherent prospective life story? We investigated whether this ability develops in parallel with the ability to construct a life story for the past and narratives about single autobiographical events in the past and future. Four groups of school children aged 9 to 15 years imagined their future lives and produced past life stories, as well as a cultural life script (i.e., culturally shared assumptions as to the order and timing of important life events). They also produced narratives about single autobiographical events to take place in the near future or recent past. Past and prospective life story coherences developed in parallel across ages, that is, older children told more coherent life stories than younger children, irrespective of temporal direction. However, children produced more coherent stories about single events in the past than in the future. Across age groups, prospective life stories were shorter, contained more life script events and were more positive than past life stories. Life script normativity increased with age and predicted the coherence of prospective, but not of past, life stories. The findings indicate that the ability to tell coherent life stories for the past and future develops in parallel and relies on similar processes. Life script abilities might be a major factor in the development of past and prospective life story coherences but not for the development of single event story coherences.

Cultural life script theory and the reminiscence bump: A reanalysis of seven studies across cultures

When asked to recall memories from their personal lives in response to word cues, adults older than 40 years report a significantly greater amount of memories from the time when they were 15–30 years old. This phenomenon is called the reminiscence bump. Cultural life story theory is a cultural explanation of the reminiscence bump. According to this account, the reminiscence bump is heavily influenced by the cultural life script – that is, shared expectations about the order and timing of life events in an ordinary life course. Life scripts locate a high proportion of major transitional life events in the second and third decades of life. The main purpose of this article was to review the empirical evidence and validity for the cultural life script theory. First, I describe the reminiscence bump and briefly mention the theories that attempt to explain why it occurs. Second, I describe the cultural life script theory and how the theory is related to autobiographical memories via life story events. Third, I describe the methodology that has been used to test the cultural life script theory. Finally, I provide a reanalysis of seven studies, based on the cultural life script theory conducted in four countries: Denmark, the USA, Turkey, and the Netherlands. As a part of this reanalysis, I examine the degree to which cultural life scripts guide recall of autobiographical memories by comparing the temporal distribution of life events obtained from the cultural life script (the cultural life script bump) and personal life story events (the reminiscence bump). Results of this reanalysis show that all life scripts across cultures have a lifespan distribution resembling the reminiscence bump. Furthermore, the distribution of the events of the life script generated by a group of old Danes in one of the studies resembles the distribution of their own life story events, suggesting that they used the information contained in the life script to retrieve personal memories.

Personal life stories: Common deviations from the cultural life script

Autobiographical memories are typically thought of as people's memories for personal life events. Yet, life stories do not exist in isolation; they are shaped by the shared social norms and prescriptions of one's culture as to the order and timing of important transitional events: a cultural life script. An individual's knowledge of their culture's standard life script does not arise from compiled individual life events, but is learned detached from particular personal experiences. When probed, many people's most important personal life events do not match the cultural life script exactly. We note that even some commonly experienced life story events do not match the life script and that their qualitative differences have not been systematically investigated. Why are some common life story events in the cultural life script whereas others are not? To begin exploring these differences, we examined what distinguishes two main types of commonly nominated events within people's personal life stories: events that do overlap with what they conceive of as their culture's life script and events that do not. We offer a secondary data analysis of the Rubin, Berntsen, and Hutson's (2009) life story data, exploring American life story data using the proposed categories of events, the various ratings the authors previously collected, and unused demographic information of interest. Given that this is simply a first step in characterizing the nature of common important life story events, we also provide some speculation for future avenues of investigation and the broader relevance of this work.

The time travelling self: Comparing self and other in narratives of past and future events

Mental time travel research emphasizes the connection between past and future thinking, whereas autobiographical memory research emphasizes the interrelationship of self and memory. This study explored the relationship between self and memory when thinking about both past and future events. Participants reported events from the near and distant past and future, for themselves, a close friend, or an acquaintance. Past events were rated higher in phenomenological quality than future events, and near self events were rated higher in quality than those about friends. Although future events were more positive than past events, only valence ratings for self and close friend showed a linear increase in positivity from distant past to future. Content analysis showed that this increase in positivity could not be ascribed to choosing events from the cultural life script. These findings provide evidence for the role of personal goals in imagining the future.

The cultural life script of Qatar and across cultures: Effects of gender and religion

Cultural life scripts (CLS) are culturally shared cognitive representations of the expected order and timing of important life events in a prototypical life. Through three studies data from Qatar were analysed and compared to previously collected data from Denmark, Turkey, and the US. In Study 1 we examined the CLS of Qatar in order to determine whether the clear segregation of men and women as well as the centrality of religion in this society would influence the CLS. A total of 55 Qatari undergraduates completed the standard CLS task, imaging a Qatari infant of their own as well as the opposite gender. In Study 2 important personal life story events were collected from 83 Qatari undergraduates in order to explore the overlap between remembered life events and CLS events. Study 3 was a reanalysis of CLS data from Denmark, Turkey, and the US. There was a considerable overlap of events across cultures, but we also found that the Qatari CLS showed more gender differences and contained more religious and positive events compared to the other three countries.

A Study on Application Family Script to Pastoral Counseling -Based on a Comparing with Bowen’s Family Therapy Theory and a Life Script of TA-

A Study on Application Family Script to Pastoral Counseling -Based on a Comparing with Bowen’s Family Therapy Theory and a Life Script of TA-

Early desistance narratives: A qualitative analysis of probationers’ transitions towards desistance

The importance of life scripts and identity change in the desistance process has been well documented in recent years. Such scripts involve the construction of a narrative which leads the would-be desister towards a new non-offending identity. Accounts of these subjective changes are frequently regarded in the existent literature as being the culmination of the desistance process – the final phase in the journey away from crime. This article examines the role of narrative and identity change from the perspective of individuals who might be considered to be in the primary desistance phase of the journey away from crime. The article presents findings from a qualitative study of early transitions towards desistance, among a group of males under probation supervision. It is argued that identity reconstruction begins during the early phases of desistance, and recommendations are made in relation to policy and practice.

ЖИЗНЕННЫЙ СЦЕНАРИЙ ЛИЧНОСТИ: ОСНОВНЫЕ ПОДХОДЫ К РАССМОТРЕНИЮ

The article is dedicated to the consideration of personality vital script as a socio-psychological phenomenon that is associated with the ability of life planning, designing and structuring. The author compares the approaches of national and foreign authors to the determination of the individual life script and its structural components. The basic directions of contemporary native and foreign researches of life script are analyses in the article. Particular attention is paid to the awareness of its formation and implementation in the process of life. The connection of the awareness level to a variety of factors (age, activity, personal maturity, creativity) is shown here. The possibility of personality life script correction is considered. The conclusion about complexity and multidimensionality of the interdisciplinary nature of the individual life script is made.

Life scripts in folktales: A comparison between Japan, China, and Europe

Life scripts in folktales: A comparison between Japan, China, and Europe

Is race a ‘salient…’ or ‘dominant identity’ in the early 21st century: The evidence of UK survey data on respondents’ sense of who they are

The term ‘master status’, coined by Everett Hughes in 1945 with special reference to race, was conceptualised as one which, in most social situations, will dominate all others. Since then race and other collective social identities have become key features of people’s lives, shaping their ‘life scripts’. But is race still a ‘master’ or ‘dominant identity’ and, if not, what has replaced it? Analyses of recent social surveys show that race has lost its position to family, religion (in the South Asian and Black groups) and (amongst young mixed race people) also age/life-stage and study/work. However, many of these different identity attributes are consistently selected, suggesting the possibility – confirmed in in-depth interviews – that they may work through each other via intersectionality. In Britain race appears to have been undermined by the rise of ‘Muslim’ identity, the increasing importance of ‘mixed race’, and the fragmentation of identity now increasingly interwoven with other attributes like religion.

Representations of Childless Women in the Australian Print Media

There is an array of socially constructed life scripts which feature the motherhood role as a pinnacle for women; however, increasing numbers of women are remaining childless, violating these very basic informal morals of our society. In Australia, the political and social climate is predominantly pronatalist. Powerful discourses, produced through social, political, medical, and religious institutions, provide commentary on cultural discourses surrounding reproduction, femininity, and motherhood. The media play an important role in reinforcing and communicating these pervasive ideologies. This paper explores how childless women are represented in the Australian print media within the context of a pronatalist society. The representation of childless women was predominantly negative and characterised by reprimanding, pitying, and threatening undertones. Four main representations (sympathy worthy women; career women; the artefact of feminism; and reprimanded women) were identified but ultimately taken together they suggest that being a childless woman is an undesirable position in contemporary Australian society.

Doing age: methodological reflections on interviewing

The aim of this article is not only to discuss how the interview method has implications for the construction of aged identities, but also how the research area conditions the positionings that are made within the interview. Drawing on a set of qualitative semi-structured interviews with persons identifying as, and having experiences of volunteering as ‘class grandparents’ in schools for children, this article highlights and investigates three regimes that proved central in these interviews and that affected the construction of the data: the ‘confessional mode’, the ‘use of life scripts’ and the ‘theoretical identifications’ affecting the interview conversations.

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.

The presence of injunctions in clinical and non-clinical populations

Various authors within the transactional analysis community have postulated that a person’s life script is formed on the basis of received injunctions, that people with mental disorders have more destructive and numerous injunctions and that people with depressive and paranoid pathology have different sets of injunctions, with Don’t belong being more common in paranoid disorders and Don’t be important in depressive disorders. This research was conducted to check such assertions, and used Script Injunctions Scale (Gavrilov-Jerković et al., 2010) applied to a convenience sample of 100 adult subjects identified as non-clinical via interviews and 100 adult subjects, equally divided between paranoid and depressive, identified by psychiatrist classification based on ICD-10 criteria. The results provide partially expected validation, with statistically significant difference between the non-clinical and clinical part of the sample. The clinical group had statistically significantly higher scores on the 12 injunctions studied. Subjects with depressive characteristics had seven Injunctions which were more pronounced Don’t feel, Don’t exist, Don’t be well, Don’t be a child, Don’t, Don’t think, and Don’t be close Injunctions.

Identity Formation and Autobiographical Memory: Two Interrelated Concepts of Development

� Abstract—The aim of the present paper is to investigate the interdependency among ego-identity status, autobiographical memory and cultural life story schema. The study shows considerable differences between autobiographical memory characteristics and family which is typical for participants (adolescents, M age years = 17.84, SD = 1.18, N = 58), with different ego-identity statuses. Participants with diffused ego-identity status recalled fewer autobiographical memories. Additionally, this group of participants recalled fewer events from their parents' life. Participants with moratorium ego-identity status dated their first recollections to a later age than others, and recalled fewer memories relating to their childhood. Participants with achieved identity status recalled more self-defining memories and events from their parents' life. They used more functions from the autobiographical memory. There weren't any significant differences between the foreclosed identity status group and the others. These findings support the idea of a bidirectional relation between culture, memory and self. Keywords—Autobiographical memory, autobiographical narrative, cultural life script, ego-identity I. INTRODUCTION

Interruptions to Cultural Life Scripts

Age serves as a basis for assigning status and regulating social interaction across all societies. Members of the cultural group socialize new members into the rules and roles that are associated with different chronological ages and age categories. These socially constructed age norms result in cultural life scripts. The events expected to occur reflect a positive bias, resulting in an idealized life script. Serious illnesses serve as an interruption to the idealized life script creating a tension between this ideal and the real of the lived experience. This study explores the nature of interrupted life narratives by analyzing comments related to aging made by people diagnosed with cancer and their spousal caregivers. Their comments reveal the ways in which aging expectations, chronological age, and health are intertwined. Because a serious illness is typically expected in very old age, when it occurs at a younger age both the individual with cancer and his or her caregiver struggle to make sense of this interruption to their anticipated life narratives. Poor health status leads to age relativism; that is, perceptions that the individual is not acting his or her chronological age. For married couples, adapting to illness as a couple operates in similar ways as it does for the individual. Their identity as a couple is challenged by the illness, and they struggle to redefine their relationship to each other and to their social world.

Snow White and the Curse of the Wicked Witch: The Poisoned Apple, the Deep Sleep and the Awakening Kiss

Patients in therapy complain about their inability to change dysfunctional and repetitive patterns in their lives. In this article an explanation, of why we re-enact dysfunctional patterns and attract dysfunctional relationships, is proposed and integrated into a theory, namely, the Creation and Manifestation of Reality theory, explaining the impact of perceived traumatic experiences, mostly in childhood. The fairy tale of Snow White is used to illustrate the theory: The poisoned apple represents the impact of the perceived traumatic event, the subconscious conclusions and decisions formed, culminating over time into a hypnotic blueprint or subconscious life script. The deep sleep represents how dysfunctional behaviour patterns are re-enacted, through the creation and attraction of painful experiences in this subconscious or hypnotic “magic spell”. Snow White is finally rescued by the kiss of the prince, symbolising the breaking of the curse, the subconscious pattern is de-hypnotised and the patient can make new conscious decisions about their core self beliefs. Three case studies are used to illustrate the application of the theory in hypnotherapy practice. Continuously searching for better ways to help patients is at core the role of the psychologist in practice.

Higher Secondary School Students’ Attitude towards Chemistry

The focus of this study was about higher secondary school students’ attitude towards chemistry subject, chemistry teacher and teaching methodologies of chemistry teacher. Like academic achievement, attitude is considered to be an important product of higher secondary education. The population of this study was all the higher secondary schools students of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Pakistan), however due to time constraints and convenience the 35 second year students of government higher secondary school Jamrud Khyber agency Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were taken as convenience sample for this study. A modified questionnaire of Abulude (2009), Cheung (2009) and class room life script of Johnson and Johnson, Johnson, Johnson & Anderson (1983), of likert scale were used as an instrument for this study. The attitude of the students was analyzed by the mean score of each statement. The study revealed that students were very much satisfied from the chemistry teacher however students have worries about the subject of chemistry and the methodology of chemistry.

From Fiction to Freedom: Our True Nature beyond Life Script

This article brings together the teachings of nonduality (Advaita Vedanta) and the transactional analysis concept of scripts. The author describes how understanding and practicing the path of nonduality sheds light on the illusory nature of script narratives and leads to transcendence and freedom from them. The function and maintenance of life scripts is explored as is the essential nature of human beings beyond the stories that we create. A clinical example illustrates these ideas, and guidance is offered to therapists.

Identity-related autobiographical memories and cultural life scripts in patients with Borderline Personality Disorder

Disturbed identity is one of the defining characteristics of Borderline Personality Disorder manifested in a broad spectrum of dysfunctions related to the self, including disturbances in meaning-generating self-narratives. Autobiographical memories are memories of personal events that provide crucial building-blocks in our construction of a life-story, self-concept, and a meaning-generating narrative identity. The cultural life script represents culturally shared expectations as to the order and timing of life events in a prototypical life course within a given culture. It is used to organize one's autobiographical memories. Here, 17 BPD-patients, 14 OCD-patients, and 23 non-clinical controls generated three important autobiographical memories and their conceptions of the cultural life script. BPD-patients reported substantially more negative memories, fewer of their memories were of prototypical life script events, their memory narratives were less coherent and more disoriented, and the overall typicality of their life scripts was lower as compared with the other two groups.