Avril Thorne

Putting the Person into Social Identity

In recent years, the turn toward narrative in psychology has shifted the carrier of identity from stages to stories. Like Erik Erikson’s [1959] stage theory of identity, storied approaches construe identity as a psychosocial project, developing through engagement with larger social forces. Storied approaches also preserve Erikson’s premise that identity emerges through the struggle to make sense of oneself in the complex world of adulthood. Stories, however, are a more visible and efficient vehicle than stages, which are more elusive and more tenuously tied to the social world. Although all narrative researchers are fascinated by the power of stories to make sense of lived experience, some view identity as a socially situated enterprise whereas others view identity as a long-term autobiographical project. Bamberg’s study pursues identity-making as a situated project: identities are created on the spot when speakers orient or ‘position’ themselves and others vis-à-vis culturally available ‘master’ narratives. The autobiographical approach, in contrast, views identity as a long-term personal project, more situated in the person than the situation, and oriented toward developing a coherent story across an individual’s past, present, and imagined future. As someone who values socially situated and personal-historical understandings of identity development, I welcome the opportunity to ponder how Bamberg’s work fits into the larger field of storied identity research, what is new, and where it might lead.

Intimacy and Distancing Young Men’s Conversations About Romantic Relationships

This study examinedhow 32 pairs of 19-to 22-year-oldEuro-Americanmale friends constructed intimacy when telling romantic-relationship stories in casual conversations. Analyses centered on the emergence of two types of conversational positions: intimate positions and distancing positions. Intimate positions constructed young men as warm, caring, and emotionally vulnerable; distancing positions functioned to diminish intimacy, care, and vulnerability. Although intimate positions were present, they did not arise in a straightforward or unmarked way. Instead, intimate positions were often eclipsed or supplanted by distancing positions. The findings provide a conversationally nuanced understanding of how young men practice intimacy by constructing themselves as moving both toward and away from close relationships with women. For emerging adult males, we suggest that such shifting positions can help to develop a clearer sense of what one wants, and does not want, in a love relationship.

How late-adolescent friends share stories about relationships: The importance of mitigating the seriousness of romantic problems

This narrative study explored how late adolescents (N = 64 dyads) jointly told stories about romantic relationships during casual conversations with same-sex friends. Stories about romantic problems were four times more prevalent than stories about romantic nonproblems, and relationship instability was the most frequent type of romantic problem. Furthermore, discussions of romantic problems (versus nonproblems) were particularly likely to be softened or mitigated by projecting a detached, relaxed, or unknowing stance. Case studies of such conversational mitigation vividly illustrate how these primarily White, heterosexual, late adolescents conavigated the vagaries of developing serious and intimate bonds without appearing too invested or troubled by their romantic problems. The findings have implications for understanding the co-construction of social and personal identities.

I'm Outgoing and She's Reserved: The Reciprocal Dynamics of Personality in Close Friendships in Young Adulthood

Close college-age friendships provide differential opportunities for reinforcing dispositional tendencies and fostering accommodation or change. This finding was obtained from a cross-sectional study of 66 pairs of same-sex college-age friends (58% female). Each pair of friends was extreme and either very similar or different with regard to extraversion-introversion. Interviews with each friend were analyzed for references to each others role in various friendship domains, including the setting of the friendship and position with regard to chatting, disclosing, expressing opinions about peers, and energizing the friendship. Matched friends mutually reinforced each others similar dispositional tendencies. Friends with contrasting personalities showed patterns of personality accommodation as well as complementary reinforcement. Implications are discussed for embedding reciprocal theories of personality development in close friendships.

Personality and Metaphor Use: How Extraverted and Introverted Young Adults Experience Becoming Friends

Competing theories have viewed relationship formation as a gradual process or as an instant development, with little attention to differences in individual perceptions of the same relationship. In the present study, conceptual metaphors concerning relationship formation were identified and coded from interviews with each friend in 59 same–sex, white, college–age, US dyads (57% female). Friends were extreme and either very similar or different from one other with regard to extraversion–introversion. An actor–partner analysis found that friends paired with an extravert used more Force–Impact metaphors that conveyed an explosive ‘friends–at–first–sight’ experience, whereas friends paired with an introvert used more Journey–Organism metaphors that reflected a gradual transition into friendship. Regardless of their partners personality, extraverts and female friends used more Joint–Proximity metaphors that emphasised the development of intimacy. Results are interpreted using the Social Relations Model and the PERSOC approach to show how personality can serve both as an environment (partner) and as a cognitive schema (actor) to distinctly shape impressions of how a friendship develops. Copyright

“So it’s like, do you like Jeff a lot or, I mean…” How Women Friends Interactionally Position Personal Identity While Conversing About Desire

Despite Erikson’s (1968) proposal that identity is a psychosocial task, most existing research in developmental psychology has conceptualized personal identity as an individual, “internalized” phenomenon. The present case study aimed to elucidate how emerging adult friends co-construct personal identities by multiply positioning themselves while dialoguing about their romantic and sexual desires. The participating friends were two White, heterosexual, 19-year-old women, college roommates. We combined microanalysis of positioning in their conversation with analysis of the friends’ individual interviews about their recorded conversation. This dual perspective provided a situated understanding of identity positioning on several planes—vis-à-vis the interactional partner (e.g., She needs support, I’m supporting), the romantic partner under discussion (e.g., I’m mature, he’s immature), and dating relationships generally (e.g., okay with casual relationships). Findings are discussed in relation to theories of personal identity development and the interlocutor’s role in negotiating the developmental tasks of identity and intimacy.

Corrigendum to “Spontaneous narrative production in focal neurodegenerative disease” [Neuropsychologia 97 (2015) 158–171]

The authors regret that there was an error in the initial given for Guido F. Schauer in the author list of the original publication. This is now corrected here. The authors and publisher would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused

The Cambridge Handbook of Personality Psychology: Social and Cultural Processes

The Cambridge Handbook of Personality Psychology - Libros de Medicina - Personalidad/Evaluacion y Tratamiento Psicologico - 106,87

Introduction to Stephen G. West's Murray Award Address

I am honored to introduce Stephen G. West, the winner of the Henry A. Murray Award for Outstanding Contributions to Personology and the Study of Human Lives. Steves contributions as a methodologist and statistician are appreciated by anyone who has struggled with complex interactions and unusual research designs. These empirical innovations have contributed enormously to broadening and deepening the kinds of data that can be used to study personality. Perhaps less apparent, but crucial in his selection for this award, is Steves leadership in diversifying the field of personality psychology. In his capacity as editor of the Journal of Personality in the 1980s and early 1990s, Steve effectively shepherded personology into the mainstream of personality research. Also important was Steves willingness not only to mentor his own graduate students, but to rescue a considerable number of strays. In his generativity and inclusiveness, Steve has effectively elevated the field of personality and the persons within it.