Colqhoun's Story

[zustifer]

YES I CAN POST

Here's a pretty neat article (though not terribly meaty) about people's ideas of their own 'life narratives'. I'm amused to find that my conscious mind is at about the level of a preadolescent in this regard:

[M]ost people do not begin to see themselves in the midst of a tale with a beginning, middle and eventual end until they are teenagers. “Younger kids see themselves in terms of broad, stable traits: ‘I like baseball but not soccer,’ ” said Kate McLean [.]

Are you guys better at this?
It's also unsettling, later, when it's brought up that people who see their life problems as being outside themselves (even psychological ones) have a better chance of overcoming them.

They described their problem, whether depression or an eating disorder, as coming on suddenly, as if out of nowhere. They characterized their difficulty as if it were an outside enemy, often giving it a name (the black dog, the walk of shame). And eventually they conquered it.

Comments

[sanspoof.livejournal.com]

Oh, which view are you saying is black and white? I just meant I'm better with stable traits than I am with narrative (viz. the Robocop chart (http://bubbl.us/view.php?sid=10299&pw=yagQrcq8SV.IUOTJQcWFZZGNKRTJTLg)). I think I was being more tongue-in-cheekily self-deprecating than anything, but if you know more about this, please tell!

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

[hey, i was gonna reply to this... now i am!]

I meant the "“Younger kids see themselves in terms of broad, stable traits: ‘I like baseball but not soccer,’ ” said Kate McLean" bit. When you're a kid, things don't have shades. If you're asked what your favorite something is, you're often quick with an answer. As an adult, it usually ends up being, "Well, i dunno.... it depends on stuff."

I think it's weird, though, because i think adults tend to see themselves in terms of broad, stable traits, too, and with more reason, since we're older and more set in our ways. Anyway, it's probably just a matter of describing the differences in terms i find more acceptable, because i'm a huge jerk, or something.

[sanspoof.livejournal.com]

No, that's a good point.
The only examples I can think of in regards to 'favorite thing' have to do with a lot of recent sampling of those things; like, you are constantly eating skittles, so you are given loads of opportunity to decide which color is the best. (If your favorite changes from red to purple over a summer, this might still be noteworthy, but maybe the new hierarchy is more important than the idea that you got sort of sick of red ones? I don't know.)
And you're always in contact with your toys, so it's easy to work out which is your favorite. It's not as if we, adults, are just constantly, uh, what, going to restaurants? movies? that sort of thing. Gaps between experiences make comparisons harder.
I suspect this just means that whenever we form an opinion about what we like, though, that we keep it indefinitely.