Authoring a Second Chance in Life: Emotion and Transformational Processing Within Narrative Identity

Abstract

In this article, narrating a second a chance in life after an identity-challenging experience is defined as a process of connecting the self to the negative emotional impact of the experience and using it as a narrative catalyst for positive self-transformation. I examined this process, labeled transformational processing, with quantitative and qualitative analyses from 2 studies, 1 on narratives of difficult life experiences in midlife women (Pals, 2006b), and the other on the formation of causal connections between past experiences and self-development within the life stories of midlife adults (Pals, McAdams, & Machado, 2006). Across these 2 studies, the transformational processing of difficult life experiences was shown to (a) be a product of 2 distinct narrative processes, exploratory narrative processing and coherent positive resolution; (b) predict healthy outcomes in adulthood including maturity, well-being, and physical health; and (c) involve acknowledging negative emotion in the past and connecting it to developing new ways of experiencing positive emotion in the present. In addition, I give special attention to alternatives to transformational processing and to the importance of taking a dynamic, temporal approach to narrative identity.