Analysis of Similarity and Heterogeneity of Life Histories Redescribed 7 Years Later

Abstract

　The purpose of this study was to examine the similarity and heterogeneity of life histories as described in late adolescence and early adulthood, and the stability and changeability of “retelling the past”. Subjects were 35 graduates of a nursing junior college who had written their life history as a report assignment in college in 1994, and who wrote their life history again in 2001 seven years later.

　While there was similarity in the two sets of life histories, heterogeneity also was found. There were more retellings which became affirmative than negative, in that the same episodes were told in a more positive way than before, and while negative episodes were more often replaced, and it was shown that description or reconstruction of negative experiences was more unstable than positive ones.