ABSTRACT
Narrative identity involves a person’s attempt to answer questions such as “What defines me?” “Who am I?” And “What do I stand for across the epochs of my life?” This chapter places one’s narrative identity in a wider three-layer framework of lifespan personality development that consists of traits, motivations/goals, and narrative identity. This chapter reviews current research indicating that adolescents show greater understanding of how their life experiences relate to who they are as people as well as how their personal narratives are characterized by greater coherence and/or meaning making than are found among children. Narrative identity research is a relatively young and fast growing field within psychology, and there are many research and intervention potentials with adolescents as future longitudinal and intervention studies are undertaken using this approach.
