In this article, we investigate methodological and theoretical constraints implicated by findings of low correlations between researcher codings and participant ratings of conceptually similar narrative features. We discuss potential explanations for these puzzling mismatches from a measurement perspective and from theoretical perspectives drawn from personality, developmental, and cognitive literatures. The mismatches raise questions for traditional theoretical assumptions of narrative identity as being internalized and subjective and may reflect different narrative constructs created through two different social contexts.
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