Exploring Time Perspective and Narrative Coherence Links Between Identity Styles and Flourishing

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between identity processing styles and psychological flourishing in relation to two under-examined variables in identity research, namely narrative awareness and a balanced time perspective. Participants (N = 205) ranged in age from 17 to 57 (M = 22.73, SD = 6.75) and completed the Identity Styles Inventory-5, Flourishing Scale, Awareness of Narrative Identity Questionnaire, and the modified Balanced Time Perspective Scale. Results indicated that the informational identity style was positively, and the diffused-avoidant identity style was negatively, correlated with flourishing. These associations were mediated by a balanced time perspective and narrative awareness. Results suggest that thinking about one’s past, present, and future in positive ways, as well as recognizing that identity can be adaptively construed in narrative terms, produce increases in psychological well-being over and above specific identity styles. Narrative awareness and time perspective, therefore, can provide novel insights in identity research.