How do people incorporate collective major historical events into their personal life stories? This study investigates the concept of historical consciousness, which is the extent to which individuals integrate the recollection of major historical events into their narrative identity in personally meaningful ways. A sample of 134 midlife adults were asked to describe in detail two major historical events, social movements, or societal changes that impacted them and explain their personal significance. Individual differences in the degree to which the participants incorporated these collective events into their narrative identities were coded on a dimension running from “tuning history out” (low scores) to “witnessing history” (medium) to “living history” (high). Scores on the narrative measure of historical consciousness were positively associated with extraversion, identification with all humanity, indicators of psychosocial adjustment (i.e., generativity and psychological well-being), and civic and political engagement behaviors.
AdlerJ. M.Lodi-SmithJ.PhilippeF. L.HouleI. (2016). The incremental validity of narrative identity in predicting well-being: A review of the field and recommendations for the future. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 20, 142–175.
AdlerJ. M.TurnerA. F.BrookshierK. M.MonahanC.Walder-BiesanzI.HarmelingL. H.AlbaughM.McAdamsD. P.OltmannsT. F. (2015). Variation in narrative identity is associated with trajectories of mental health over several years. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 108(3), 476–496. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038601
4.
AgronickG. S.DuncanL. E. (1998). Personality and social change: Individual differences, life path, and importance attributed to the women’s movement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(6), 1545–1555. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.74.6.1545
BookerJ. A.EllM.FivushR.GreenhootA. F.McLeanK. C.WainrybC.PasupathiM. (2022). Early impacts of college, interrupted: Considering first-year students’ narratives about COVID and reports of adjustment during college shutdowns. Psychological Science, 33, 1928–1946. https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976221108941
7.
BrownN. R. (2021). The possible effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the contents and organization of autobiographical memory: A transition-theory perspective. Cognition, 212, 104694. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104694
8.
BrownN. R.LeeP. J.KrslakM.ConradF. G.G. B. HansenT.HavelkaJ.ReddonJ. R. (2009). Living in history: How war, terrorism, and natural disaster affect the organization of autobiographical memory. Psychological Science, 20(4), 399–405. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02307.x
CordonnierA.LuminetO. (2021). Consistency and social identification: A test-retest study of flashbulb memories collected on the day of the 2016 Brussels bombings. Memory, 29(3), 305–318. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2021.189125
12.
CordonnierA.RosouxV.GijsA.-S.LuminetO. (2022). Collective memory: An hourglass between the collective and the individual. Memory, Mind & Media, 1, Article e8. https://doi.org/10.1017/mem.2022.1
13.
CostaP. T.Jr.McCraeR. R. (1992). NEO Personality Inventory–Revised (NEO-PI-R) and NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) professional manual. Psychological Assessment Resources.
14.
CowanH. R.MittalV. A.McAdamsD. P. (2021). Narrative identity in the psychosis spectrum: A systematic review and developmental model. Clinical Psychology Review, 88, 102067.
15.
CoxK. S.WiltJ.OlsonB.McAdamsD. P. (2010). Generativity, the Big Five, and psychosocial adaptation in midlife adults. Journal of Personality, 78(4), 1185–1208.
16.
CurtinN.StewartA. J.DuncanL. E. (2010). What makes the political personal? Openness, personal political salience, and activism. Journal of Personality, 78(3), 943–968. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2010.00638.x
17.
DuncanL. E. (2005). Personal political salience as a self-schema: Consequences for political information processing. Political Psychology, 26(6), 965–976.
18.
DuncanL. E.AgronickG. S. (1995). The intersection of life stage and social events: Personality and life outcomes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69(3), 558–568. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.69.3.558
19.
DuncanL. E.StewartA. J. (2007). Personal political salience: The role of personality in collective identity and action. Political Psychology, 28(2), 143–164. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9221.2007.00560.x
20.
ElderG. H. (1987). War mobilization and the life course: A cohort of World War II veterans. Sociological Forum, 2, 449–472. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01106621
21.
ElderG. H. (1999). Children of the Great Depression: 25th anniversary edition (25th ed.). Routledge. (Original work published 1974). https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429501739
22.
ElderG. H.ModellJ.ParkeR. D. (Eds.). (1994). Children in time and place: Developmental and historical insights. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511527623
23.
EriksonE. H. (1963). Childhood and society (2nd ed.). Norton.
24.
FaulF.ErdfelderE.LangA.-G.BuchnerA. (2007). G*Power 3: A flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. Behavior Research Methods, 39, 175–191.
25.
FivushR.BohanekJ. G.DukeM. (2008). The intergenerational self: Subjective perspective and family history. In SaniM. (Ed.), Self continuity (1st ed., pp. 13–27). Psychology Press. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203888513-14
26.
FlettG. L.BlanksteinK. R.HewittP. L. (1989). Neuroticism, perfectionism, and anxiety. Personality and Individual Differences, 10(10), 731–735. https://doi.org/10.1016/0191-8869(89)90119-0
27.
HabermasT.BluckS. (2000). Getting a life: The emergence of the life story in adolescence. Psychological Bulletin, 126(5), 748–769. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.126.5.748
28.
HahnS.ButtaccioD. R.HahnJ.LeeT. (2015). Personality and attention: Levels of neuroticism and extraversion can predict attentional performance during a change detection task. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 68(6), 1041–1048. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2015.1032986
29.
HalbwachsM. (1925). Les cadres sociaux de la mémoire. [The social frameworks of memory] Albin Michel.
30.
HammackP. L. (2010). Identity as burden or benefit? Youth, historical narrative, and the legacy of political conflict. Human Development, 53(4), 173–201. https://doi.org/10.1159/000320045
31.
HartH. M.McAdamsD. P.HirschB. J.BauerJ. J. (2001). Generativity and social involvement among African Americans and White adults. Journal of Research in Personality, 35(2), 208–230.
32.
HiltonD. J.LiuJ. H. (2017). History as the narrative of a people: From function to structure and content. Memory Studies, 10(3), 297–309. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750698017701612
JonesB. K.McAdamsD. P. (2013). Becoming generative: Socializing influences recalled in life stories in late midlife. Journal of Adult Development, 20(3), 158–172. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10804-013-9168-4
36.
LindM.TureS.McAdamsD. P.CowanH. R. (2024). Narrative identity, traits, and trajectories of depression and well-being: A 9-year longitudinal study. Psychological Science, 35(12), 1325–1339. https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976241296512
37.
LiuJ. H.HiltonD. J. (2005). How the past weighs on the present: Social representations of history and their role in identity politics. The British Journal of Social Psychology, 44(4), 537–556. https://doi.org/10.1348/014466605X27162
38.
MayukhaA.GuzmanA.JitklongsubS.McAdamsD. P. (2025). “I want to lift my people up”: Exploring the psychological correlates of racial themes within the life stories of midlife Black Americans. Journal of Personality, 93, 320–340. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12932
39.
McAdamsD. P. (2008). Personal narratives and the life story. In RobinsR. W.PervinL. A. (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (3rd ed., pp. 242–262). The Guilford Press.
40.
McAdamsD. P. (2011). Narrative identity. In SchwartzS. J.LuyckxK.VignolesV. L. (Eds.), Handbook of identity theory and research (pp. 99–115). Springer Science + Business Media. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7988-9_5
41.
McAdamsD. P. (2013). The redemptive self: Stories Americans live by (Revised and expanded edition). Oxford University Press.
42.
McAdamsD. P. (2018). “I Am what survives me”: Generativity and the self. In FreyJ. A.VoglerC. (Eds.), Self-transcendence and virtue (pp. 251–273). Routledge.
43.
McAdamsD. P. (2021). Narrative identity and the life story. In JohnO. P.RobinsR. W. (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (4th ed., pp. 122–141). Guilford Press.
44.
McAdamsD. P.de St AubinE. (1992). A theory of generativity and its assessment through self-report, behavioral acts, and narrative themes in autobiography. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62, 1003–1015.
McCraeR. R.CostaP. T.Jr. (2008). The five-factor theory of personality. In JohnO. P.RobinsR. W.PervinL. W. (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (3rd ed., pp. 159–180). Guilford Press.
48.
McFarlandS.WebbM.BrownD. (2012). All humanity is my ingroup: A measure and studies of identification with all humanity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 103, 830–853. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0028724
49.
McLeanK. C.SyedM.PasupathiM.AdlerJ. M.DunlopW. L.DrustrupD.FivushR.GraciM. E.LilgendahlJ. P.Lodi-SmithJ.McAdamsD. P.McCoyT. P. (2020). The empirical structure of narrative identity: The initial Big Three. Journal of personality and social psychology, 119(4), 920–944. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000247
50.
McLeanK. C. (2021). Cultural methods in psychology: Describing and transforming cultures. Oxford University Press.
51.
McLeanK. C.LilgendahlJ. P.FordhamC.AlpertE.MarsdenE.SzymanowskiK.McAdamsD. P. (2018). Identity development in cultural context: The role of deviating from master narratives. Journal of Personality, 86(4), 631–651. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12341
52.
McLeanK. C.SyedM. (2015). Personal, master, and alternative narratives: An integrative framework for understanding identity development in context. Human Development, 58(6), 318–349. https://doi.org/10.1159/000445817
53.
NeisserU. (1982). Snapshots or benchmarks? In NeisserU. (Ed.), Memory observed. Remembering in natural contexts (pp. 43–49). Freeman.
54.
PasupathiM.BookerJ.EllM.Follmer GreenhootA.McLeanK. C.WainrybC.FivushR. (2022). College, interrupted: Profiles in first-year college students’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic across one year. Emerging Adulthood, 10(6), 1574–1590. https://doi.org/10.1177/21676968221119945
55.
PasupathiM.MansourE.BrubakerJ. R. (2007). Developing a life story: Constructing relations between self and experience in autobiographical narratives. Human Development, 50(2–3), 85–110. https://doi.org/10.1159/000100939
56.
PetersonB. E.DuncanL. E. (1999). Generative concern, political commitment, and charitable actions. Journal of Adult Development, 6(2), 105–118. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021620824878
57.
PetersonB. E.KlohnenE. C. (1995). Realization of generativity in two samples of women at midlife. Psychology and Aging, 10(1), 20–29. https://doi.org/10.1037/0882-7974.10.1.20
58.
PetersonB. E.SmirlesK. A.WentworthP. A. (1997). Generativity and authoritarianism: Implications for personality, political involvement, and parenting. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72(5), 1202–1216. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.72.5.1202
59.
PetersonB. E.StewartA. J. (1996). Antecedents and contexts of generativity motivation at midlife. Psychology and Aging, 11(1), 21–33. https://doi.org/10.1037//0882-7974.11.1.21
60.
RajuS. (2006). Divided we fall: Americans in the aftermath [Film]. Flying Kaur Productions.
61.
RantalaJ. (2022). The significance of family reminiscing for children’s historical consciousness. Memory Studies, 15(5), 1142–1158. https://doi.org/10.1177/17506980211049892
62.
R Core Team. (2023). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing. https://www.R-project.org/
63.
RevelleW. (2024). psych: Procedures for Psychological, Psychometric, and Personality Research (R Package Version 2.4.3). Northwestern University. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=psych
64.
RubinD. C.WetzlerS. E.NebesR. D. (1986). Autobiographical memory across the lifespan. In RubinD. C. (Ed.), Autobiographical memory (pp. 202–221). Cambridge University Press.
65.
RyffC. D.KeyesC. L. M. (1995). The structure of psychological well-being revisited. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69(4), 719–727. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.69.4.719
66.
SchiffB.NoyC.CohlerB. J. (2001). Collected stories in the life narratives of Holocaust survivors. Narrative Inquiry, 11(1), 159–194. https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.11.1.07sch
TeasdaleJ. D.GreenH. A. C. (2004). Ruminative self-focus and autobiographical memory. Personality and Individual Differences, 36(9), 1933–1943. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2003.08.022
69.
WatersT. E. A.FivushR. (2015). Relations between narrative coherence, identity, and psychological well-being in emerging adulthood. Journal of Personality, 83, 441–451.
70.
WeststrateN. M.McLeanK. C. (2010). The rise and fall of gay: A cultural-historical approach to gay identity development. Memory, 18(2), 225–240. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658210903153923
71.
WeststrateN. M.McLeanK. C. (2024). Protest, panic, policy, and parades: Memory for cultural-historical events and psychosocial development in the LGBTQ+ community. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, 11(1), 90–104.
72.
WickhamH.AverickM.BryanJ.ChangW.McGowanL. D.FrançoisR.GrolemundG.HayesA.HenryL.HesterJ.KuhnM.PedersenT. L.MillerE.BacheS. M.MüllerK.OomsJ.RobinsonD.SeidelD. P.SpinuV.. . . YutaniH. (2019). Welcome to the tidyverse. Journal of Open Source Software, 4(43), 1686. https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.01686
73.
WuY.MooreS.DoreR.BuchsbaumD. (2014). The role of extraversion in the relationship between personality and attentional breadth. Personality and Individual Differences, 68, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2013.08.022
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
