The Life Story, Domains of Identity, and Personality Development in Emerging Adulthood: Integrating Narrative and Traditional Approaches

Michael W. Pratt Ph.D. · M. Kyle Matsuba Ph.D.

May 2018 · Oxford University Press

About this ebook

The Life Story, Domains of Identity, and Personality Development in Emerging Adulthood focuses on individuals' formulations of the unique episodes and events of their lives that give one meaning and a sense of personal identity. This book brings the growing research on narrative study and the life story into focus by drawing from the existing research on personality development during emerging adulthood. In this book, authors Michael W. Pratt and M. Kyle Matsuba present a series of chapters exploring how one's life story manifests across the many components of their developing identity, including their religion, morality, vocation, society, and the relationships they have with their parents, peers, and romantic partners. Taking their cue from Erik Erikson's model of adolescent and adult development, the authors show readers exactly how a life story approach can illuminate the distinctive features of an individual's personality and development during this formative phase of life. Organized around a set of life contexts where personality is manifested (i.e. adjustment, personal ideology, close relationships, occupation, and civic life), this book draws on the authors' own longitudinal research on the development of the life story in emerging adulthood. Throughout the book, they incorporate fascinating case studies and historical examples (e.g., Darwin, Pope Francis, Martin Luther King, Jr., Jane Fonda) of individuals' unique development during this period of life in order to better illustrate the application of this approach to understanding the whole person in context.

About the author

Michael W. Pratt received his graduate training in Human Development from Harvard University, completing his Ed.D. in 1975. He has taught for the past 30 years at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada where he is now Professor Emeritus of Psychology. His research and teaching focus has been in life span developmental psychology, with a particular interest in narrative and the life story. M. Kyle Matsuba is a Psychology Instructor at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada. His research interests focus on environmental attitudes and behaviors, and identity development. In addition, he spends a few months each year in northern Uganda working with children, teachers, and administrators to implement social-emotional learning (SEL) based programs in schools within this post-conflict region.