Life Stories

The Life Story Challenge

Overview Video

This discussion will focus on life stories and why they can be so influential both to the narrator and to the audience. In this discussion, each person will have the opportunity to share parts of their own life story.

Pre-Discussion Preparation

We have included the following activities to help you prepare for the discussion: 

  • Try to think of your life as if it was a story you were reading about. Who are the key characters? What settings have been pivotal in shaping you into the person you have become? What is your relationship to those settings? What important experiences stand out as influential in the development of your identity? What moments of conflict and triumph have been the most impactful?

  • You may also want to read the discussion questions and contemplate your answers to them in preparation for the upcoming conversation with your group members.

Discussion Questions

every question; instead, feel free to focus on the questions that members of your group seem most excited about.

  • What do you think is the relationship between the past, present, and future in the development of your identity? Does one have a greater impact than the others? Why do you think that?

  • What characteristics do you think make someone influential to a life story? Feel free to share an experience of someone who played a pivotal role in your own story and discuss why they had such an influence.

  • Why do you think some settings are more influential than others? Did they occur during moments of adolescent development? Of career advancement? Of adversity? Feel free to share an experience of a place that played a pivotal role in your own story and discuss why it had such an influence.

  • How has adversity shaped your life narrative? What did you learn about yourself during those challenging experiences? How have they shaped your identity? Consider sharing some of your experiences.

  • How has victory shaped your life narrative? What did you learn about yourself during those moments of triumph? How have they shaped your identity? Consider sharing some of your experiences.

Post-Discussion Activities

Below are two activities that you can complete after the discussion to deepen your learning and to prepare you to write your life story: 

  • You may want to consider reading, listening to, or watching the life stories of other people. These may come in the forms of documentaries, autobiographies, and memoirs. What did they choose to include in their own stories? What elements seemed the most important? And why?

  • Record any important takeaways from both your own thoughts and those shared by others during the discussion. Focus on recording the insights that would be most beneficial to you when you begin to write your own life story.

Overview Video Research

  1. Bauer, J. J., & McAdams, D. P. (2004). Personal growth in adults' stories of life transitions. Journal of Personality, 72(3), 573–602. doi: 10.1111/j.0022-3506.2004.00273.x

  2. Hixon, J. G., & Swann, W. B. (1993). When does introspection bear fruit? Self-reflection, self-insight, and interpersonal choices. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64(1), 35–43. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.64.1.35

  3. Ibarra, H., & Barbulescu, R. (2017). Identity as narrative: Prevalence, effectiveness, and consequences of narrative identity work in macro work role transitions. Academy of Management Review, 35(1). http://doi.org/10.5465/amr.35.1.zok135

  4. McAdams, D. P., & McLean, K. C. (2013). Narrative identity. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 22(3), 233–238. http://doi.org/10.1177/0963721413475622

  5. Singer, J. A., Blagov, P., Berry, M., & Oost, K. M. (2013). Self-defining memories, scripts, and the life story: Narrative identity in personality and psychotherapy. Journal of Personality, 81(6), 569–582. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12005

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