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This Is Your Life... And How You Tell It

The way people talk about their pasts revealssandlot years through adolescence and middle
a lot about how they approach and write theage. They also describe several crucial
futurescenes in detail, including high points (the
graduation speech, complete with verbal drum
For more than a century, researchers haveroll); low points (the college nervous
been trying to work out the raw ingredientsbreakdown); and turning points. The entire
that account for personality, the sweetnesstwo-hour session is recorded and transcribed.
and neuroses that make the sluggishness and
sensitivity that make Andrew Andrew. TheyIn analysing the texts, the researchers found
have largely ignored the first-personstrong correlations between the content of
explanation -- the life story that peoplepeople's current lives and the stories they
themselves  tell about who they are, and why.tell. Those with mood problems have many good
memories, but these scenes are usually
Stories are stories, after all. Thetainted by some dark detail. The pride of
attractive stranger at the airport bar hearscollege graduation is spoiled when a friend
one version, the parole officer another, andmakes a cutting remark. The wedding party was
the PTA board gets something entirelywonderful until the best man collapsed from
different. Moreover, the tone, the lessons,drink. A note of disappointment seems to
even the facts in a life story can all shiftclose  each  narrative  phrase.
in  the  changing  light  of a person's mood.
By contrast, so-called generative adults --
"When we first started studying life stories,those who score highly on tests measuring
people thought it was just idle curiositycivic-mindedness -- tend to see many of the
stories, isn't that cool?" said Dan Pevents in their life in the reverse order, as
McAdams, a professor of psychology atlinked by themes of redemption. They flunked
Northwestern and author of the 2006 book, Thesixth grade but met a wonderful counsellor
Redemptive Self. "Well, we find that theseand made honour roll in seventh. They were
narratives guide behaviour in every moment,laid low by divorce, only to meet a wonderful
and frame not only how we see the past butnew partner. Often, too, they say they felt
how  we  see  ourselves  in  the  future."singled out from very early in life --
protected,  even  as  others nearby suffered.
Researchers have found that the human brain
has a natural affinity for narrativeIn broad outline, the researchers report,
construction. People tend to remember factssuch tales express distinctly American
more accurately if they encounter them in acultural narratives, of emancipation or
story rather than in a list, studies find;atonement, of Horatio Alger advancement, of
and they rate legal arguments as moreepiphany and second chances. Depending on the
convincing when built into narrative talesperson, the story itself might be nuanced or
rather  than  on  legal  precedent.simplistic, powerfully dramatic or cloyingly
pious. But the point is that the narrative
During a standard life-story interview,themes are, as much as any other trait,
people describe phases of their lives as ifdriving factors in people's behaviour.
they were outlining chapters, from the



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