Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

 

Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here for more information

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by McAdams, D. P.
Right arrow Articles by Bowman, P. J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by McAdams, D. P.
Right arrow Articles by Bowman, P. J.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 27, No. 4, 474-485 (2001)
DOI: 10.1177/0146167201274008
© 2001 Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

When Bad Things Turn Good and Good Things Turn Bad: Sequences of Redemption and Contamination in Life Narrative and their Relation to Psychosocial Adaptation in Midlife Adults and in Students

Dan P. McAdams

Northwestern University, dmca{at}nwu.edu

Jeffrey Reynolds

Northwestern University

Martha Lewis

Northwestern University

Allison H. Patten

Vanderbilt University

Phillip J. Bowman

University of Illinois at Chicago

Midlife adults (age 35 to 65) and college undergraduates provided lengthy, open-ended narrative accounts of personally meaningful episodes from the past, such as life-story high points, low points, turning points, and earliest memories. The oral (adult) and written (student) narratives were coded for redemption and contamination imagery. In the midlife sample, adults scoring high on self-report measures of generativity showed significantly higher levels of redemption and lower levels of contamination sequences. In both samples, redemption sequences in life narrative accounts were positively associated with self-report measures of psychological well-being, whereas contamination sequences predicted low levels of well-being among midlife adults. In addition, redemption sequence scores were a stronger predictor of well-being than were ratings of the overall affective quality of life-narrative accounts. The results are discussed with respect to the empirical literature of benefit-finding in the face of adversity and in the context of the recent upsurge of interest in the collection and interpretation of life narratives.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Journal of Adolescent ResearchHome page
S. Seider
Catalyzing a Commitment to Community Service in Emerging Adults
Journal of Adolescent Research, November 1, 2007; 22(6): 612 - 639.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Qual Health ResHome page
Z. Weber, L. Rowling, and L. Scanlon
"It's Like . . . a Confronting Issue": Life-Changing Narratives of Young People
Qual Health Res, September 1, 2007; 17(7): 945 - 953.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Journal of Adolescent ResearchHome page
M. Good and T. Willoughby
The Identity Formation Experiences of Church-Attending Rural Adolescents
Journal of Adolescent Research, July 1, 2007; 22(4): 387 - 412.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 J. Gerontol. B Psychol. Sci. Soc. Sci.Home page
K. Hooker and D. P. McAdams
Personality and Adult Development: Looking Beyond the OCEAN
J. Gerontol. B. Psychol. Sci. Soc. Sci., November 1, 2003; 58(6): P311 - 312.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]