The Life Story Schema

Susan Bluck; Tilmann Habermas

doi:10.1023/A:1005615331901

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The Life Story Schema

Susan Bluck & Tilmann Habermas (2000)

Published: Jun 1, 2000
Journal: Motivation and Emotion · Vol. 24 · No. 2
DOI: 10.1023/A:1005615331901

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At a GlanceAI

Defines the “life story schema” as a way people organize autobiographical memories into a coherent narrative identity.

SummaryAI

This paper matters because it offers a clear concept for how people mentally organize their personal past into a life narrative, which is central to narrative identity and coherence. It introduces the idea of a “life story schema,” linking autobiographical memory to culturally shaped expectations about how lives unfold over time. The implication is that coherence in life stories may depend not only on what happened, but on the schemas people use to select, order, and interpret memories.

Method SnapshotAI

Conceptual/theoretical paper proposing a schema-based framework for organizing autobiographical memories into life narratives.

BackgroundAI

Basic knowledge of autobiographical memory and narrative identity in psychology.

In Collections

Psychology14 papers

Narrative coherence in life stories

The essential papers that built our understanding of how people turn lived experience into coherent stories — and why that coherence matters for identity. From Linde's life stories as linguistic acts, through McAdams' narrative identity framework, to Habermas and Bluck's developmental account of the life story — this collection traces how the field learned to see personality not as a set of traits, but as a story being told.

Evgeny Smirnov

Together with the previous ones, they form the overall framework of the cognitive schema of the life story and the role of coherence within it.

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