Two versions of life: emotionally negative and positive life events have different roles in the organization of life story and identity.
Abstract
Over 2,000 adults in their sixties completed the Centrality of Event Scale (CES) for
the traumatic or negative event that now troubled them the most and for their most
positive life event, as well as measures of current PTSD symptoms, depression, well-being,
and personality. Consistent with the notion of a positivity bias in old age, the positive
events were judged to be markedly more central to life story and identity than were
the negative events. The centrality of positive events was unrelated to measures of
PTSD symptoms and emotional distress, whereas the centrality of the negative event
showed clear positive correlations with these measures. The centrality of the positive
events increased with increasing time since the events, whereas the centrality of
the negative events decreased. The life distribution of the positive events showed
a marked peak in young adulthood whereas the life distribution for the negative events
peaked at the participants' present age. The positive events were mostly events from
the cultural life script-that is, culturally shared representations of the timing
of major transitional events. Overall, our findings show that positive and negative
autobiographical events relate markedly differently to life story and identity. Positive
events become central to life story and identity primarily through their correspondence
with cultural norms. Negative events become central through mechanisms associated
with emotional distress.
Type
Journal articleSubject
Adaptation, PsychologicalEmotions
Female
Humans
Life Change Events
Male
Memory, Episodic
Middle Aged
Personality Inventory
Psychological Tests
Self Concept
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/9783Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1037/a0024940Publication Info
Berntsen, Dorthe; Rubin, David C; & Siegler, Ilene C (2011). Two versions of life: emotionally negative and positive life events have different
roles in the organization of life story and identity. Emotion, 11(5). pp. 1190-1201. 10.1037/a0024940. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/9783.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
David C. Rubin
Juanita M. Kreps Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience
For .pdfs of all publications click here My main research interest has been in
long-term memory, especially for complex (or "real-world") stimuli. This work includes
the study of autobiographical memory and oral tra
Ilene C. Siegler
Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
My research efforts are in the area of developmental health psychology and organized
around understanding the role of personality in health and disease in middle and later
life. My primary research activity is as Principal Investigator of the UNC Alumni
Heart Study (UNCAHS) a prospective epidemiologic study of 5000 middle aged men and
women and 1200 of their spouses that evaluates the role of personality on coronary
heart disease and coronary heart disease risk, cancer, and normal a
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