The autobiographical critic within: Perceiving oneself as a major character in one’s life story predicts well-being

Aug 28, 2026

Narrative identity research often treats people as the main character in their own life stories, yet some may instead see themselves as side or minor characters. A three-study investigation uses a novel self-report method to compare major vs. minor character self-perception and its effects on well-being over time. The major-character construct is linked to greater psychological need satisfaction, autonomous goal pursuit, and coded agency, supporting expanded narrative-based predictions of well-being.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages12

Reading Time30 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Autobiographical approaches to personality

The narrative life story approach

Journal of Research in Personality 111 (2024) 104510 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Research in Personality journal [homepage:](homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jrp)[ www.elsevier.com/locate/jrp](homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jrp) Full Length Article The autobiographical critic within: Perceiving oneself as a major character in one’s life story predicts well-being Ryan Goffredia, *, 1 , Kennon M. Sheldon a, b a University of Missouri, Columbia b HSE University, Russia A B S T R A C T Narrative identity research typically assumes that people always play the role of the main character in the life stories they provide (McAdams, 2018). However, it is possible that some people view themselves as playing the role of a “side” character or minor character in their life story. Such views of the self are likely to influence well-being outcomes. In three studies we use a novel self-report method to show that seeing oneself as a major versus minor character within one’s own life story significantly impacts well-being both prospectively and retrospectively. Additionally, we demonstrate that this major character construct is associated with rated psychological need satisfaction, autonomous goal pursuit, and coded agency. We believe these findings contribute to expanding available autobiographical assessments and predictions of well-being from narrative data. 1. Introduction Life experiences often affect people long after the experience occurred. Impactful past events may be encoded as autobiographical memories and are packaged alongside the emotions and cognitions experienced during the original event, waiting to be evoked upon retrieval (Lekes, et al., 2014). These autobiographical memories, when linked with other key memories over time, play a significant role in the development of one’s identity because people make use of these remembered events to make meaning of their lives as they tell their own narrative story or personal myth. Narrative identity research (Bauer et al., 2008; McAdams & McLean, 2013) has demonstrated that key memories, events, or epochs during one’s life reliably impact well-being outcomes through narrative themes such as affect, agency, communion, contamination, and redemption. Past research has also shown that narrative characteristics can help to satisfy a person’s basic psychological needs (see Adler et al., 2016 for a review). Most narrative work has viewed the research participant as the author and narrator of their personal story when they are asked to recount key events during the life story interview (LSI; McAdams, 2008). The relative presence (versus absence) of particular narrative themes is later coded from the autobiographical memories. These coded variables are then correlated with various measures of well-being. This article takes a more explicit approach to assessing autobiographical memories that situates participants not as the assumed narrator of their life story but as a literary critic of that story, by tapping their subjective perception of the extent to which they play the role of the major character within their life story versus a minor or background character. We further demonstrate the importance of this autobiographical metacognitive perspective as it is associated with felt autonomous goal pursuit, agency, psychological need satisfaction, and subjective well-being both cross-sectionally and over time. We suggest the novel major/minor character perception variable may provide a new way for researchers to investigate autobiographical memory as related to well-being outcomes and narrative constructs. We elucidate this claim below. 1.1. Autobiographical approaches to personality There are multiple approaches to the study of autobiographical memory, each focusing on different aspects of individual experience and personality through stated memories, and each interested in how such memories and stories of oneself are related to individual w

FAQs

How do the studies measure whether people see themselves as the main character or a minor character?

They use a novel self-report method that asks participants to judge the extent to which they perceive themselves as major versus minor characters in their own life story.

What well-being outcomes are affected by major-character versus minor-character self-perception?

Major-character perception significantly impacts well-being both prospectively and retrospectively, and it is associated with psychological need satisfaction and autonomous goal pursuit.

How does the work expand traditional narrative identity assessment?

Instead of treating participants as the assumed narrator of their story, it assesses participants as a literary critic of their own narrative—adding an autobiographical metacognitive perspective that links to agency and well-being.

Aug 28, 2026

Upload by Felix Montgomery