Agentic, communal, and spiritual traits are related to the semantic representation of written narratives of positive and negative life events
Garcia, Danilo ; Ancksäter, Henrik ; Kjell, Oscar LU ; Archer, Trevor ; Rosenberg, Patrica ; Cloninger, Robert and Sikström, Sverker LU
(2015)
In Psychology of Well-Being
5(8).
p.2-20
- Abstract
- Background: We used a computational method to quantitatively investigate the relationship between personality and written narratives of life events. Agentic (i.e., self- directedness), communal (i.e., cooperativeness), and spiritual (self-transcendence) traits were of special interest because they represent individual differences in intentional val- ues and goals, in contrast to temperament traits, which describe individual differences in automatic responses to emotional stimuli. We also investigated which pronouns were most common in relation to personality constructs that were significantly related to the narratives.
Methods: Personality was assessed among 79 adolescents at one point in time using the NEO Personality... (More) - Background: We used a computational method to quantitatively investigate the relationship between personality and written narratives of life events. Agentic (i.e., self- directedness), communal (i.e., cooperativeness), and spiritual (self-transcendence) traits were of special interest because they represent individual differences in intentional val- ues and goals, in contrast to temperament traits, which describe individual differences in automatic responses to emotional stimuli. We also investigated which pronouns were most common in relation to personality constructs that were significantly related to the narratives.
Methods: Personality was assessed among 79 adolescents at one point in time using the NEO Personality Inventory—Revised (NEO-PI-R) and the temperament and char- acter inventory (TCI). Six months later, adolescents were asked to write down the most positive or the most negative event that had happened to them in the last 3 months. Adolescents were explicitly instructed to answer the following questions within their narratives: What happened? Who were involved? Why do you think it happened?
How did you feel when it happened? How do you think the involved persons felt? The descriptions were quantified using a computational method in which the latent semantic analysis algorithm generates a semantic representation of the narratives.
Results: Only self-directedness, cooperativeness, and self-transcendence were related to the semantic representation of the narratives. Moreover, cooperativeness and self- transcendence were associated with less frequent usage of singular pronouns (e.g., me respectively mine).
Conclusions: Agentic, communal, and spiritual traits are involved when adolescents describe positive and negative life experiences. Moreover, high levels of communal and spiritual traits are related to less self-focused narratives.
Keywords: Agency, Big five, Communion, Latent semantic analysis, Life story, Semantic spaces, Pronouns, Temperament and character inventory (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/8518974
- author
- Garcia, Danilo
; Ancksäter, Henrik
; Kjell, Oscar
LU
; Archer, Trevor
; Rosenberg, Patrica
; Cloninger, Robert
and Sikström, Sverker
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2015
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- narratives, semantic, agentic, traits, life, events
- in
- Psychology of Well-Being
- volume
- 5
- issue
- 8
- pages
- 2 - 20
- publisher
- Springer
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000387940500001
- ISSN
- 2211-1522
- DOI
- 10.1186/s13612-015-0035-x
- project
- Thinking in Time: Cognition, Communication and Learning
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 9ae5168a-c232-454f-9bb8-d5b32e24c2ff (old id 8518974)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 13:26:55
- date last changed
- 2019-03-08 02:31:46
@article{9ae5168a-c232-454f-9bb8-d5b32e24c2ff,
abstract = {{Background: We used a computational method to quantitatively investigate the relationship between personality and written narratives of life events. Agentic (i.e., self- directedness), communal (i.e., cooperativeness), and spiritual (self-transcendence) traits were of special interest because they represent individual differences in intentional val- ues and goals, in contrast to temperament traits, which describe individual differences in automatic responses to emotional stimuli. We also investigated which pronouns were most common in relation to personality constructs that were significantly related to the narratives.<br/><br>
Methods: Personality was assessed among 79 adolescents at one point in time using the NEO Personality Inventory—Revised (NEO-PI-R) and the temperament and char- acter inventory (TCI). Six months later, adolescents were asked to write down the most positive or the most negative event that had happened to them in the last 3 months. Adolescents were explicitly instructed to answer the following questions within their narratives: What happened? Who were involved? Why do you think it happened?<br/><br>
How did you feel when it happened? How do you think the involved persons felt? The descriptions were quantified using a computational method in which the latent semantic analysis algorithm generates a semantic representation of the narratives.<br/><br>
Results: Only self-directedness, cooperativeness, and self-transcendence were related to the semantic representation of the narratives. Moreover, cooperativeness and self- transcendence were associated with less frequent usage of singular pronouns (e.g., me respectively mine).<br/><br>
Conclusions: Agentic, communal, and spiritual traits are involved when adolescents describe positive and negative life experiences. Moreover, high levels of communal and spiritual traits are related to less self-focused narratives.<br/><br>
Keywords: Agency, Big five, Communion, Latent semantic analysis, Life story, Semantic spaces, Pronouns, Temperament and character inventory}},
author = {{Garcia, Danilo and Ancksäter, Henrik and Kjell, Oscar and Archer, Trevor and Rosenberg, Patrica and Cloninger, Robert and Sikström, Sverker}},
issn = {{2211-1522}},
keywords = {{narratives; semantic; agentic; traits; life; events}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{8}},
pages = {{2--20}},
publisher = {{Springer}},
series = {{Psychology of Well-Being}},
title = {{Agentic, communal, and spiritual traits are related to the semantic representation of written narratives of positive and negative life events}},
url = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/3375875/8519001.pdf}},
doi = {{10.1186/s13612-015-0035-x}},
volume = {{5}},
year = {{2015}},
}