The Science of StoriesJonathan Adler

Olin College of EngineeringHealth Story Collaborative

jadler@olin.eduhttp://faculty.olin.edu/jadler

HxRefactored Conference – Boston, MA – April 6, 2016

scoopnest.com

“We live entirely, especially if we are writers,

by the imposition of a narrative line upon disparate images, by the ‘ideas’ with which we have learned to freeze the shifting phantasmagoria which is

our actual experience.”

Joan Didion, The White Album, 1979

The Human Brain is Wired for Coherence

themodchik.com

themodchik.com

everythingzoomer.com

?

?

Narrative Identity

Narrative Identity

Reconstructed Past

Perceived Present

Imagined Future

memory’s reconstructive nature is a feature of the system, not a bug

palimpsest self

You:Based on a True Story

Narrative Identity:Why Should We Care?

Structural ReasonsCognitive ReasonsEthical ReasonsEmpirical Reasons

Adler, Lodi-Smith, Philippe, & Houle (in press). 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

The Scientific Study of Stories

http://brainblogger.com

How Does Your Story (Now)Effect You Over Time?

How Does Your Story (Now)Effect You Over Time?

Two Studies:1) Natural tracking of middle-aged adults over four years2) Special Sample over two-and-a-half years

Adler, J.M., Turner, A.F., Brookshier, K.M., Monahan, C., Walder-Biesanz, I., Harmeling, L.H., Albaugh, M., McAdams, D.P., Oltmans, T.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.

How Does Your Story (Now)Effect You Over Time?

• Natural Tracking– Variations in story were associated with different trajectories of mental health over four years

Adler, J.M., Turner, A.F., Brookshier, K.M., Monahan, C., Walder-Biesanz, I., Harmeling, L.H., Albaugh, M., McAdams, D.P., Oltmans, T.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.

How Does Your Story (Now)Effect You Over Time?

• Special Sample– Among participants who got sick, Variations in story were associated with different trajectories of mental health over two-and-a-half years

Adler, J.M., Turner, A.F., Brookshier, K.M., Monahan, C., Walder-Biesanz, I., Harmeling, L.H., Albaugh, M., McAdams, D.P., Oltmans, T.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.

Themes:Agency

CommunionRedemption

Contamination

How Do Changes in Your Story

relate to Changes in Your Mental Health?

Psychotherapyas a focus for studying change

Psychotherapyas a narrative endeavor

Changes in Your Story, Changes in Your Mental Health• Adults in individual therapy• Before first session and in-between each session– Wrote story– Completed measures of mental health

Adler, J.M. (2012). Living into the story: Agency and coherence in a longitudinal study of narrative identity development and mental health over the course of psychotherapy. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102(2), 367-389.

-3

-2

-1

0

1

2

3

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Stan

dard

ized

Scor

e

Mental Health

Agency

Assessment Point

Participant 1

Changes in Your Story, Changes in Your Mental Health• Clients got better • Clients expressed more agency over time

• Changes in agency came before changes in mental health

Adler, J.M. (2012). Living into the story: Agency and coherence in a longitudinal study of narrative identity development and mental health over the course of psychotherapy. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102(2), 367-389.

Changes in Your Story, Changes in Your Mental Health• Themes in therapists’ stories didn’t matter

Adler, J.M.(2013). Clients’ and therapists’ stories about psychotherapy. Journal of Personality, 86(5), 595-605.

illness as a biographical disruption

agency

communion

redemption/contamination

coherence

http://www.healthstorycollaborative.org

http://commonhealth.wbur.org/2015/01/doctor-patient-bond

Quint Buchholz, “Mann auf Einer Leiter“

We use our stories (our identity) as a foundation.

We use them to tell us who we are.

We use them to make sense of new experiences.

We are not only the main character, but also the narrator.

thank you

jadler@olin.eduhttp://faculty.olin.edu/jadler