The International Journal of Reminiscence and Life Review

Motivational and Affective Themes in the Life Stories of Underserved Emerging Adults: A Pilot Study

William L. Dunlop — 2022-07-24

Narrative identity is an internal and evolving life story, constructed in the interest of attaining purpose and personal persistence. Here, we report the results of a pilot study examining the narrative identities of a sample of underserved emerging adults (n = 19) currently receiving social services. Participants, the majority of which were ethnic minorities, provided five self-definitional autobiographical stories during a semi-structured life story interview. Stories were reliably quantified for agency (themes of self-mastery and competence), communion (themes of intimacy and connectedness), redemption (stories that began negatively and ended positively) and contamination (stories that began positively and ended negatively). Across two time points, agency was negatively associated with depressive symptoms, and redemption tended to be negatively associated with emotional dysregulation. Relations between narratives and psychological well-being were summarized via the illustration of four qualitative case summaries embodying these broader trends.

Re/composing Memories: Aging, Emotion, and Autobiographical Memory

Meridith Griffin — 2022-07-24

Memory is an elusive and yet compelling concept. In this paper, we explore the narrative complexity of autobiographical memory, from Randall and McKim’s (2008) existing framework that outlines four overlapping angles: truth-wise, self-wise, time-wise, and other-wise. We seek to take up and extend each of these angles, or dimensions, aiming to bring them to life with empirical data - and we propose a fifth angle, emotion-wise, highlighting the affective nature of autobiographical memory. Based on participant observation, life history interviews, and the written memoirs of older adults who participated in (primarily) library-based writing groups in Southern Ontario, Canada, we employed narrative inquiry to investigate the process and activity of writing as a leisure practice. In our data, participants discuss their unconscious and/or deliberate blurring of fact (reality) versus imagination in their memory-based accounts. They reflect on their shifting conceptions of past, present, and future selves within the stories they tell as well as their recounted experiences of self-discovery and self-exploration. They also explore the role of others in shaping their stories and memories. Throughout, the influence of emotion is palpable. We posit that dynamic reminiscence, such as that represented by the crafting of memoirs within writing groups, enables the exploration of these dimensions of autobiographical memory. As such, the capacity of participants to engage in narrative practice is nurtured, and the greater is the concordant capacity for development, growth, (self-)wisdom in later life.

Resilience, Re-silence, Repeat: The Past and Future of Pandemic Reminiscence

Thomas W. Pierce — 2022-07-24

Surviving and Thriving Beyond Young Adulthood in India as a Queer Person: Perspectives from Personal Life Review and the Value of Story Telling

Anyah Prasad — 2022-07-24

The Rewards of Oral Narration

Galen Tinder — 2022-07-24